Cookeville Mastersingers Kicking Off 45th Season Monday

Cookeville Mastersingers will kick off their 45th season with an open rehearsal on Monday.

Artistic Director Craig Zamer said the choir is always looking for new singers. He said come and sing with them on Monday and join if you want.

“Even if you haven’t had a whole lot of experience, maybe you’ve sung in your church choir before,” Zamer said. “There’s no audition that goes along with this. This is a true community choir. It’s just people who love choral music and love to sing together. And we’d love to have anybody who would be interested.”

Zamer said the choir was established in the spring of 1978 by Tennessee Tech’s Director of Choirs, Dr. David Urness. Zamer said the choir’s primary focus was bringing high-quality choir music to the Upper Cumberland.

Zamer said once or twice a year, the choir likes to bring in orchestral and additional choirs for more complex performances. He said the choral group had hired a small chamber orchestra last year for their version of Illuminare by Composer Elaine Hagenberg. Zamer said it was the Tennessee premier of that multi-movement work.

“Our fundraising is primarily done through an event we’ve historically called Masterfest,” Zamer said. “But it’s kind of evolved over the past two years. Basically, it’s an evening where the choir performs, but we also do a nice dinner for those who attend, and then we do a silent auction and a live auction.”

Zamer said all the proceeds from this annual event help fund the budget for the year. He said the fundraiser was crucial to making the nonprofit work and enabling them to provide for the community.

“This year its called A Night At The Theater,” Zamer said. “The choir will be singing some pieces on their own. But we will be featuring some soloists, some duets, and small group performances by choir members throughout the evening.”

Zamer said that the performance will take place in October. He said the schedule this year will also offer Vivaldi’s Gloria in December. In March, as part of their Unity in the Community series, they will bring in a choir from Cordova High School in Memphis to perform with the University Choirs that Zamer directs. Finally, in the spring, they will have a performance of Carmena Burana accompanied by two pianos and five percussionists.

“We’re often seen as this kind of diamond-in-the-rough,” Zamer said. “This is something that exists in Cookeville, but not everybody knows about us.”

More information at MasterSingersInc dot com.