After the pandemic, the Arundel Singers want to rebuild their legacy

Nearly 50 years ago, some members of the Brooklyn Community United Methodist Church congregation in Brooklyn Park performed at the bicentennial celebration.

“They got together, sang a few songs, everyone was happy,” said Sharon Igoe von Behren. “The bottom line is that they loved singing together – they really, really loved it.”

Within a year, the choir became a permanent ensemble, and in 1977 the Arundel Singers were founded as an all-volunteer choir based in Glen Burnie, said von Behren, who joined the choir in 1978 and has directed it since 1988.

Over the years, membership grew to more than 80 singers singing popular classics, religious hymns and Christmas carols in churches and nursing homes in northern Anne Arundel County. The group performed at a festival for former President Ronald Reagan and even traveled to Carnegie Hall in New York for a winter gala, Von Behren said.

“It’s really the pinnacle of any musician’s career,” she said of singing in New York. “And I can say: Yes, I was there.”

All Arundel Singers concerts are free.

“We do this because it is our service to the community,” she said. “We love to sing and we love to share.”

Like many voluntary organisations, the group was negatively affected by the COVID pandemic. In February 2020, members decided to stop rehearsals and consider resuming performances when the situation had calmed down.

At this last rehearsal, according to von Behren, all remaining members agreed that they wanted to continue singing.

“We wanted to keep doing it and couldn’t imagine stopping,” she said.

So the choir waited for the restrictions to be lifted.

“When things got a little further along, COVID had destroyed rehearsals and meetings and everything,” von Behren said. “About a month after we finished rehearsals, one of our members actually died of COVID.”

Over the next three seasons, von Behren followed news about variants and vaccines and wondered how the group could safely sing again. It wasn’t until last fall that rehearsals resumed.

“It was like a real thing to be back in the saddle,” she said. “Here we are, let’s do it.”

Now von Behren is striving to rebuild.

This process began with a winter performance in December. After a four-year hiatus, the Arundel Singers performed at Inspirations Assisted Living & Memory Care in Linthicum.