About us
In central Washington state, in the heart of apple country, a new choir was formed in 2021 with the mission to “Encourage the singer, Inspire the listener, and Benefit the community.“ We are…GladSong!
GladSong!
GladSong is a mixed choir of about 35 members performing positive music in a variety of genres - pop, country, jazz, and gospel. At a time when the traditional choir is in decline, our fresh approach and flexible repertoire is welcomed in any kind of setting, from park concerts to service organizations to churches.
GladSong strives to make an impact beyond just the musical experience. Our goal is to partner with charitable organizations, helping them to raise needed funds. Please go to the ‘Contact Us’ tab and leave us a message to see how we could be a benefit your organization!
Encourage… Inspire… Benefit...
New community choir wants to help local charities
(A Wenatchee World Article from April 9, 2022 by Dan Wheat)
A new community choir is beginning its second season offering benefit performances for organizations in the Wenatchee area and Central Washington.
GladSong provides a mix of pop, country, jazz and gospel. Its mission is to “encourage the singer, inspire the listener and benefit the community.”
“We love to sing. We want to be an instrument to help charitable causes and provide a message of inspiration while giving singers an opportunity to sing,” said Tim Meyer, founder and director. Meyer, 61, is a longtime Wenatchee singer who has directed church choirs and directed the Wenatchee Apollo Club, a men’s chorale, from 2005 to 2015. About four years ago, he attended a Breath of Aire concert at Grace Lutheran Church. Breath of Aire is an inspirational choir in Western Washington whose members include accomplished singers from throughout the state. “Their presentation was energetic and amazing and when the hat was passed over $10,000 had been raised for a charitable group,” Meyer said. “And I thought, ‘Why not us?’”
He was director of Wenatchee’s United Methodist Church Choir and began having the choir perform at places outside the church. “It was a great experience and warmly received. Then COVID hit and nobody was singing anything, anywhere. It was a time to pause and reflect,” Meyer said.
Church choirs had already been in decline before the pandemic. Meyer consulted four musicians knowledgeable of the community who agreed Wenatchee could use another community choir to give people more opportunity to sing. “Wenatchee’s Columbia Chorale is a classic community choir with a certain type of genre and Apollo Club sings a men’s repertoire and Appleaires a women’s repertoire,” Meyer said. “GladSong is more of a cross between a church choir and a glee choir. We sing pop tunes but also gospel songs and can tailor our performance to the venue. All of our songs are positive messages.”
Meyer, and his wife Alice also a singer, recruited about 20 initial singers who began rehearsals last June and first performed on Aug. 18 for the Applarians, the hosting organization of the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival. GladSong will perform for this year’s festival at 4 p.m. May 1 in Memorial Park.
Last fall, it sang for MOPs (Mothers Of Preschoolers) and Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center. “It touches hearts. Comments I heard were that one of the young MOPs moms was crying and didn’t know why. Another said she would be smiling all day and a third said she would be singing ‘Oh Happy Day’ all day long,” said Barbara Brink, GladSong member and a MOPs mentor mom. “There were 60 to 70 young moms there and they were all smiles. They hadn’t heard a choir in a long time,” she said.
GladSong will perform July 9 at a Northwest meeting of the Lutheran Womens Missionary League at the Wenatchee Convention Center. Other performances are being planned.
Groups interested in arranging for performances or singers wanting to audition to join may contact GladSong at its website, GladSong.org. GladSong is on Facebook. Among 18 songs in the choir’s repertoire are: “Listen to the Music,” “I’m Amazed,” “How Sweet It Is,” “I am Blessed,” and “Gotta Get You Into My Life.”
Several of the group’s 33 members are young adults. One of them, Sara Culp, 34, who sang in choirs Meyer directed at Eastmont Baptist Church and United Methodist, said GladSong shares “hope, joy and Jesus” from neutrality apart from a church or denomination. “Being in a choir is a beautiful reminder that in a community we need and rely on each other to make something better than we could on our own,” she said. She said a lot of young people who sang in school or church choirs no longer do because they don’t have time. “I hope they make it a priority when they do have the opportunity,” she said, “because it’s something that feeds life and energy back into you. It feeds the soul.”
Dan Wheat is retired from 45 years in journalism. He was a Wenatchee World reporter from 1987 to 2009. He has sung in local church choirs, Wenatchee’s Columbia Chorale and GladSong.