More than 300 voices will come together in choral event Singing for Peace

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

YOUNGSTOWN — Hae-Jong Lee is plunking keys on a piano in his
office at Youngstown State University.

The choral music professor is demonstrating how disparate notes
blend together to make a perfect-sounding chord.

It’s lesson, he says, that applies not only to music, but to
society.

To turn his analogy into reality, Lee has put together Giving
Voice to Peace, a choral concert that will bring together more than
300 singers on the Stambaugh Auditorium stage Sunday.

Lee is the director of choral activities at YSU’s Dana School of
Music. He is also director of the Stambaugh Chorus, which will be
joined by four other choral groups at the free 4 p.m. concert — The
Austintown Fitch High School Concert Choir, Beatitude House
Children’s Choir, Dana Symphonic Choir and Youngstown State Gospel
Choir — as well as The Youngstown Connection high school
song-and-dance troupe. The Stambaugh Youth Concert Band will
provide musical accompaniment on some songs.

Gary Sexton, director of broadcasting at WYSU-FM, will be master
of ceremonies.

To mark the event, Mayor Jay Williams has issued a proclamation
declaring Sunday “Peace Day” in Youngstown.

Each choral group will present two songs, and the evening will
end in a finale in which all of the groups will return to the stage
to sing “Deep Peace” and “United in Song.”