Conductor celebrates 20 years with Ithaca choral group

By Jeannie Griffith

ITHACA, NY — Every Wednesday night during the school year,
about 90 people head for the basement of St. Paul’s Methodist
Church in Ithaca, music in hand. Though most of them live in
Tompkins County, a few come from as far away as Binghamton or
Hammondsport. Some are very capable musicians; others have little
or no training. They range in age from 20-something to
80-something, and professionally from social worker to piano tuner
to physicist. The only traits they all share are a passion for
choral singing and a reverence for the classical canon.

Promptly at 7 p.m., Gerald Wolfe motions to the group to stand
and then sings the notes of the first warm-up. So begins another
rehearsal of the Ithaca Community Chorus and Chamber Singers, in
much the same way — and with a few of the same people — as they
have begun since the ICC&CS met for the first time on Jan. 21,
1976.

On Saturday, the ICC&CS will observe two milestones when
members takes to the risers at St. Paul’s to sing Beethoven’s
“Missa Solemnis.” The event, which will feature guest soloists
Lianne Coble, Ivy Walz, Gerald Grahame and Eric Johnson, as well as
a 33-piece orchestra, serves as the kick-off of the group’s
35th-anniversary year and also marks Wolfe’s 20th anniversary at
the podium. The chorus will host a reception following the concert
to celebrate Wolfe’s contributions to the musical life of the
community.

When he took over as director of the ICC&CS in September
1990, Wolfe was music director and organist at St. Paul’s and had
already founded two local choral ensembles, one of them in 1976. In
fact, there was a kind of harmonic convergence in Ithaca that
year.