Building Community Chorus Their Plan

Two young pianists and choristers want to start a community chorus in Barrington. 

Brittany Dyer at St. James Lutheran Church in Barrington and Jason Hervieux at St. Brendan’s Church in Riverside are looking for singers all over the East Bay to launch the choral group.

“We’re going to build this from the ground up,” said Hervieux, who has been a choral director for 12 years. “Barrington doesn’t have something like this.”

“We want to branch out with Barrington as the hub,” said Dyer, who is the pianist for the St. James “Praise Band” you may have seen perform at last year’s interfaith service of Thanksgiving at Temple Habonim.

Dyer and Hervieux have been friends since they met at Rhode Island College as music students. He is a pianist and vocalist; she is a pianist who was active with the West Bay Chorale for a few years. 

The duo has started looking for singers at East Bay churches. But the Barrington Community Chorus will not perform sacred music.

“We want to be more contemporary,” said Hervieux. “We will not be a sacred music chorus.”

“We want to be younger in our music, but we’re looking for singers of all ages,” said Dyer. “We want to generate a different type of excitement and to come up with fresh ideas.”

They would be happy to start with about 30 members if they can find the right balance. Building the chorus up to 80-100 members is a longer-term goal of Hervieux.

The chorus would rehearse weekly in a place to be determined, probably the former St. Brendan’s school in Riverside to start. They both see the chorus doing Christmas and spring concerts.

Dyer and Hervieux said they would prefer to work with experienced singers. But you don’t have to read music or have a music background. You just need to like to sing.

“This is really for the community,” he said. “And a few people we’ve talked to already are excited this is going to happen. They want us to put something like this together to give the community something.”

A summer start-up is anticipated, with rehearsals beginning in September. Send an email to barringtoncommunitychorus@gmail.com. Or go to their Facebook page.