New Children's Chorus Comes to Petaluma

“Words are powerful. Music is powerful.

When you put them together, the power grows exponentially. When your voice is your instrument, and there are many of you, you have an incredibly powerful art form."

Linda Evans Manuilow is the vivacious instigator, creator, conductor and leader of the brand new Petaluma Children’s Chorus, currently a group of 13 young singers. A graduate of Asbury University in Kentucky (BA Music Education) and Oakland University in Michigan (MA in Music and Vocal Pedagogy), Ms. Manuilow is new to the Bay Area, but already nicely ensconced in the community.

“I love this town,” she says, referring to the open-minded attitudes and the variety of community activities. “It reminds me of France,” she told me the other day as we greeted friends on the way out of Aqus Café. The chorus rehearses in the parish hall of St. John’s Episcopal Church, at the corner of Sixth and C streets, and will be holding its first performance there December 17, at 6:30 pm.

Ms. Manuilow invites the community to attend, and for more children to audition next month. Auditions for the next semester are Monday and Tuesday, January 7and 8 from 4 until 5:30 p.m. in Cram Hall, the parish hall for St. John's Episcopal Church. Interested parties should email her or call her at lmanuilow1@gmail.com* or 480-226-9157.

“Our goal,” Ms. Manuilow says of the first performance, “is to produce not just an entertaining program, but to teach children to sing beautifully in a group and to teach some sight reading skills. But it will be entertaining!” Eventually, she says, she’d love to build the program into a flourishing three-level chorus. In a music-loving town like Petaluma, that seems like a probability!

*Clarification of email address:“L” at the beginning, “one” at the end.

(Disclosure: my youngest child, 8, is a member of this newly formed vocal group, and he’s having a fabulous time.)