CRESCENDO COMMUNITY CHORUS

A Brief History of Our Beginning

In Fall 2022, five singers (one bass, two sopranos, two altos) considered the possibility of creating a non-audition SATB community choir in South Minneapolis.  They had sung together before and longed to do so again.  Conversation themes ranged from “who, what, where, when” to many “how" questions, including raising money.  Then, to the surprise and delight of the five singers, a generous monetary gift arrived from two benefactors who'd heard news of the community choir idea, and wanted to support it.  Energy gathered, moving the five from “maybe we could” to “let’s give it a go”. 

To identify other singers, the five announced “Pop Up” singing dates and held them in November 2022 and January 2023 at the Center for Performing Arts (CFPA).   They hired music directors for each: Dr. Randal Buikema in November and Janice Hunton in January.  Nearly sixty singers enthusiastically attended the Pop Ups.

Encouraged, the five met to create vision, mission and values statements that would define the choir.  The chosen name: Crescendo Community Chorus mirrored the waves of enthusiasm from singers and supporters: a gathering of engagement and activity that was its own crescendo.  Among the five singers were two with experience in the organizing and financing of nonprofit organizations.  Soon, Crescendo Community Choir was an official Minnesota nonprofit, with a bank account and a federal tax ID number.

An important decision was to use a “pay what you can” policy to provide transparency regarding the expense of running a choir (professional music direction and accompaniment; purchase of music; rental of rehearsal and performance space) and a clear message to singers that while a fee is set for participation in each session of singing (generally eight rehearsals and one performance) each singer is asked to pay according to their ability. 

Applying the policy of “pay what you can” Crescendo Community Chorus welcomed singers; contracted with CFPA for ongoing rehearsal space; purchased and borrowed sheet music and paid our professional musicians well.  The Chorus contracted with Randal Buikema to direct the first session of eight rehearsals (March to May 2023) and one performance on May 9th.

Along the way, other unsolicited contributions were received by the group, and other singers took on necessary tasks to do the work. Singers with expertise in graphic design, marketing, web page development, photography and even building a riser for our conductor volunteered. 

With these organizational details in place, the Chorus invited Randal Buikema to serve as the Artistic Director and Franco Holder to be the accompanist and both graciously accepted these roles.  In April 2023 Crescendo Community Chorus convened its first Board of Directors meeting and in May received IRS  501(c) 3 nonprofit status.  The five singer-planners serve as the initial Board: Nancy Gaschott, Ann Kay, Ellen Kluz, Jim Ramnaraine, and Susan Schultz. 

And, by unanimous decision, chocolate is available to singers at each rehearsal.