The Harmony Singers of Pittsburgh seek new talent
The Harmony Singers of Pittsburgh create family entertainment through song and dance. President Bobbi Gerson says she’s looking to bring new members in and have the group rebuild an audience again after the pandemic.
“We’re looking to come up with ideas post-COVID,” Gerson says. “Just building up that audience again that we have lost and have reached out to us saying that they’ve missed us since COVID, so that’s our goal for next year is to bring back the public concerts.”
Past performances have included shows at church group functions in addition to performing the national anthem at the Pittsburgh Pirates and Riverhounds games. This year, their lineup includes 13 scheduled private shows, and the group aims to add four public performances per season.
Musical Director of the group, Cynthia Pratt, who’s in her 21st season as director for the Harmony Singers, says their mission is to entertain audiences.
“We emphasize performance as far as entertaining people. Other choirs are more intellectual, they get the music, and their goal is to be perfect. Ours is to entertain,” Pratt says. “The majority of audiences don’t get the complexities of a perfect musical rendition anyway, so our top priority is to bring smiles to people’s faces and to get a following.”
Audience members attending a Harmony Singers performance can expect anything ranging from popular songs like “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” to patriotic hits like “Ten Songs of America/America, My Country.”
Both ladies say people want to come back and watch because the organization is very supportive, and all care for one another.
“It’s like a family, I mean, everybody really cares about each other, and if someone dies, we all support them, and if someone gets married, we go to those too,” Gerson says. “We meet for dinner a lot, we have picnics and banquets ourselves.”
When Pratt lost a loved one last year, she says she received lots of support from her fellow singers.
“I had a situation last year when my mom passed away, and I could not believe how many members of the Harmony Singers came to my home for visitation and sent me cards,” Pratt says. “I was truly touched.”
Ever since the pandemic, the Harmony Singers have found it hard to find as many members as they had pre-COVID. They currently have about 35 members and previously had more than 50 participants before the pandemic started.
They also aim to bring more younger singers into the mix.
“My goal would be to try and bring into the group some of the younger people 30 to 50,” Gerson says. “Not to discount the people over 60 or 65 because they’re very important and they have the longevity, but so the organization would be around for another 50 years, it would be great to bring in some younger folks.”
Both Gerson and Pratt say they’re always looking for new members to join their group, they’ll be having several open rehearsals on Tuesdays in September, and they would love to see more people from the South Hills area join, where they’re located.
The Harmony Singers of Pittsburgh will be holding open rehearsals on Tue., Sept. 5 and Tue., Sept. 12. Rehearsals start at 7 p.m. at the Brightwood Christian Church in Bethel Park. For more information on joining the Harmony Singers, visit harmonysingers.org/hm/join-us.