The Macon Singers, a local, 30-member choir, has been a fixture of culture in Lafayette for nearly two years. It began with a proposal from the Arts Council to Jerry Monds, Macon County’s elementary school music teacher. The Council offered to fund the Singers if Monds would spearhead and direct it.
The group is currently made up of about twenty adults and ten teens, and membership tends to shift a little from semester to semester. An audition is held for the high school students twice a year, through which four new high schoolers are admitted. Due to natural fluctuations and graduating seniors, high school membership has continued steadily at around ten. Monds himself hails from MTSU’s graduate program in music; he knows to encourage any would-be music students to embrace the work ethic required. He expects regular, not perfect, rehearsal attendance, he says.
The choir rehearses every Thursday night at Lafayette Methodist Church. They are regularly accompanied on the piano by Hannah Holland. While they have a full concert every semester, the singers have also appeared at events like Relay For Life, and a recent variety show. “We’re trying to branch out,” said Monds. “My mission for it, actually, is to eventually go outside of Macon County and travel a little bit, but we’ll see how that goes.”
The Macon Singers 4th seasonal concert is May 12 at MCHS, 7:30 PM, free of charge. “This semester we’ve gone strictly with popular music. A lot of people wonder how you do that chorally, but the people who did the music did a good arrangement on it,” said Monds.
Expect ensemble numbers by The Beatles and Billy Joel, as well as small-group a capella renditions of James Taylor’s “Your Smiling Face” and Queens “Under Pressure.”
Anyone interested in joining the Singers can contact Jerry Monds directly: jsmonds@gmail.com
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