Choir Says Farewell To Redeemer

Seated before the New Haven Oratorio Choir, artistic director Daniel Shaw raised his hand. The choir stood silent. Shaw asked pianist Alexis ZIngale to play a few notes on the piano so the choir members could hear their pitches.

“Measure 18,” he said, and gave the signal. Section by section, the choir members fell into the music, unspooling lines of sweeping harmonies that filled the wide open space of the Church of the Redeemer on Whitney Avenue with song.

The choir was there to practice for its May 11 concert, ​“Sing We and Chant It — Madrigals and Masses from the Renaissance.” It will feature Victoria’s Missa O Magnum Mysterium, the same composer’s motet of the same name, Palestrina’s Missa Aeterna Christi Munera, a Gregorian chant and several madrigals.

That concert will be the choir’s last in the church. Facing dwindling membership, the Church of the Redeemer has split its congregation in two, with some members going to the UCC’s Spring Glen Church in Hamden and others going to First Presbyterian Church in New Haven. The building itself is currently up for sale.

The choir has known for a year that this weekend’s concert would be its last in the church where it was born.

“It’s a big move for the choir,” said Jerry Boryca, the group’s current president. ​“We’re going to miss singing here because it’s such a glorious space.” The church has been letting the choir rehearse on Wednesdays there as well as giving their performance there on May 11.

The New Haven Oratorio has no plans to disband; it is currently looking for a new home.

The choir would love to ​“stay in the neighborhood,” Boryca said, and choir members have been talking to other nearby churches. It’s unclear whether the choir will be able to rehearse where it performs. What is clear is that expenses for rehearsal space will rise.

“It’s making us stretch,” Boryca said. The choir is examining the possibilities of fundraising and sponsorships. ​“We’ll have to go looking for it,” Boryca added.

Though the choir will certainly persist, for its membership, leaving the Church of the Redeemer represents a serious transition.

“I wandered into this church 40 years ago,” said choir member David Carter, who had moved to New Haven originally to go to architecture school. Soon after school, however, ​“I shattered my elbow and was stuck in New Haven without the use of my right arm.” He put out an ad to make an a cappella group.

“When all else fails, you can sing,” Carter said. He formed the group, and someone in that group suggested he check out the Redeemer Choir.

He had done some singing in high school and college, and had played the bassoon. But he wasn’t a trained singer. ​“All my training has been in this building,” he said. But he joined the group shortly after joining the church. He sang at the church as a tenor every Sunday. He sang at the UCC Spring Glen Church and First Presbyterian Church in New Haven, and he sang with the Yale Camerata. But he always liked singing at Redeemer best.

“It’s a fabulous acoustic — it’s a little challenging on diction, but I’ve sung at other places and and there’s no place where my voice sounds better,” Carter said.

Redeemer’s Sunday choir sang its last service in the fall. Carter then rejoined the New Haven Oratorio Choir ​“and was delighted — it’s a much better ensemble than it was then,” he said.

“I’m very sad to lose this as a spiritual home,” Carter said of the building. Between Spring Glen Church and First Presbyterian Church, ​“I don’t know where I’m fully going to land,” Carter said, though he suggested he was leaning toward First Presbyterian. ​“It feels more comfortable to me there — can’t say why,” he said. But ​“I still will sing with the choir, wherever they go.”

At the end of rehearsal, someone let it be known that It was two choir members’ birthdays. From the piano, Zingale struck up the opening chords, and the people gathered before the altar sang ​“Happy Birthday” as only a choir can, splitting into harmonies, reaching for lines of high notes. Everybody cheered.

New Haven Oratorio Choir performs ​“Sing We and Chant It” at the Church of the Redeemer, 185 Cold Spring Street, at 7:30 p.m. on May 11. Visit the choir’s website for more information.