Blair Area Community Choir recruiting singers for Dec. 6 concert
Published 2:19 pm Monday, October 5, 2026
The Blair Area Community Choir is seeking singers for its annual Christmas concert, scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6.
The concert was scheduled for the Blair High School auditorium. Director Kay Dickinson said it will probably move to Otte Blair Middle School because of work on the stage rigging system at the high school.
The choir is open to anyone middle school age and older. No audition is required. Rehearsals are from 5 to 6 p.m. on Sundays, Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, at First Lutheran Church in Blair. “This is a non-auditioned group of anyone who is middle school age and older,” Dickinson said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for families and friends to spend an hour a week on a Sunday afternoon singing music together.”
The choir formed in 2010, the year Dana College closed. A group of residents wanted to continue choral music during the time of Dana’s Sights and Sounds of Christmas, held the first Sunday in December.
“It was the first Sunday in December, and at its peak, there were tour buses that would come from all different areas to watch the concerts, and there were ethnic festivals and German and Scandinavian and storytelling and dancing and concerts, and it was a really great event for the campus,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson has directed the choir for 10 years, with one year off during the COVID-19 pandemic. Judy Brehm asked her to take the position in 2016 after the previous director stepped away. Membership had dwindled at the time.
The choir now has more than 90 singers from Blair, Fort Calhoun, Tekamah, Arlington, Fremont, Hooper, Omaha and Missouri Valley, Iowa.
“Blair has been such a musical community for a very, very long time, not only because of the college, but through our schools as well and the churches in the area,” Dickinson said. “And I think it fills a real void for the people who still want to perform choral music. There’s something about getting together with a group of people who all share that same background, passion, of varying abilities, and sing.”
Dickinson said most members have sung in a high school or college choir, but some simply enjoy singing. “We have a strong base that if you don’t have as much experience, you’re sitting right next to someone who does,” she said. “And that allows us to do a wide variety of music.”
This year’s program will include “Christmas on Broadway,” a medley of Broadway Christmas songs performed with the community band. The band’s director chose the piece. The choir is performing as part of the band’s concert.
“We can’t prepare a full concert in six total hours of rehearsal time,” Dickinson said. “And so it’s a great way for the community to come once and see both of the really strong groups we have.”
The choir will also sing “America the Beautiful” in recognition of the nation’s 250th anniversary, and “Christmas Truce,” which Dickinson said is based on an event during World War I.
“The British and the German soldiers were on opposite sides of a field. And on Christmas, they created their own truce,” she said. “The Germans were singing ‘Silent Night.'” The British soldiers joined the singing, and the two sides met in the middle of the field and exchanged gifts. The piece opens with a narration, which Dickinson said will likely be read by three choir members while a cello plays “Silent Night.” The choir then joins in singing the carol.
Dickinson said she selects music to include one technically challenging piece, one sacred piece and one secular Christmas piece, among others. “One of the most difficult things is choosing music for a group you don’t know who’s going to be there,” she said.
The choir buys its music with an annual grant from Thrivent Financial, which Brehm applies for, and with donations to Blair Area Performing Arts through Washington County Gives. The sheet music for “Christmas on Broadway” alone cost $430.
Last year, members of a homeschool children’s choir that Dickinson also directs, along with children and grandchildren of choir members, sang with the group on one piece.
Dickinson grew up on a farm west of Blair and graduated from Blair High School in 1984. She attended Dana College, where she began as a business and accounting major and sang with New Day, a recruiting group for the college. She changed her major to vocal music and is endorsed in K-12 vocal and instrumental music. She taught K-12 music for two years in Shelby, Iowa, and taught elementary music for the rest of her career. She also directed the adult choir and children’s choirs at First Lutheran Church.
“But for a small group of people who wanted to keep Sights and Sounds going to the 90-plus singers we have singing for our community choir now, I think there’s been a real emphasis on community,” Dickinson said. “And that’s what I love about this group.”
For more information, contact Dickinson.
