Coming Attractions: SDCS will present "An English Christmas" on December 11th and 12th featuring Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols", "Fantasia on Christmas Carols" by Ralph Vaughan Williams and other familiar English carols. See the Concert Page for details.

The Southern Delaware Choral Society was created to bring quality choral music to southern Delaware and to provide singers with the opportunity to enhance their musical knowledge and skills. Two concerts are presented annually with two performances of each concert performed in a variety of Sussex County venues. John Ranney is our conductor with Rebecca McDaniel serving as rehearsal accompanist and Gail Launay as Executive Director.

2010 Broadway Concert warm-up at Epworth UMC, Rehoboth.      Dan Tabler photo

Spring 2010

The Spring 2010 Concert  “Opening Night on Broadway” featured a medley of Rogers and Hammerstein classics, Guys and Dolls, Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, Le Miserables,  Rent and songs from several current Broadway shows. Both performances were well-attended and very well received. The Saturday, April 17th performance at  Epworth UMC in Rehoboth was nearly SRO and a large appreciative crowd attended the Sunday, April 18th performance at Mariner's Bethel UMC in Ocean View. The fund raising dinner at DiFebo's was also a big success with every table and all the bar stools filled following the concert. Please visit the Concerts page for additional information.

Please go to the Concerts Page to read Audience Accolades at the bottom of the left column.

Christmas Concert 2009

Our annual Christmas Concert was performed on December 12th at Eagle's Nest Fellowship Church, Milton, DE and on December 13th at Woodbridge High School, Bridgeville, DE.

We performed "My Soul Now Magnifies the Lord" that featured the J.S. Bach Magnificat in DMagnificat that was also on the program. The second half of the program included Mendelssohn's "Christus" and six choruses and four solos from Handel's Messiah. All solos were sung beautifully by SDCS members with  accompaniment by professional organist Lee Dettra. that inspired Felix Mendelssohn's

Scott Standiford of Rehoboth Beach commented: "It is obvious that the members of the Society worked really hard for a long time, resulting in a high-polished sound to the performance. The SDCS should be very proud of its performance Saturday night."

Neil Beahan of Bethany Beach said: "I have to tell you I thoroughly enjoyed the concert at Eagles Nest last Saturday. While I would much rather be singing, it was a wonderful opportunity to hear the group from the audience point of view. John you should be pleased. The balance was super and the group did a fine job following your lead. Diction was clear and the dynamics came off very well. It was a challenging program, but absolutely beautiful. I'm more partial to the Messiah and it was lovely. So glad you did the encore too. Nice touch! Thanks again for the performance. It sure put me in the Christmas Spirit."

Hear SDCS
Click a link below to hear a small portion of a previous Christmas Concert or "Ave verum corpus" the encore piece of the 2009 Christmas Concert.  Thanks to Scott Standiford for providing the MP3 audio clips.

J. S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio

The "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah

Mozart's "Ave verum corpus"

Audio clips of "Opening Night On Broadway" are not available due to copyright restrictions.

Announcements                           

Join us on Tuesday, September 7th at 7pm for the first rehearsal of the Fall 2010 Season. We rehearse in the fellowship hall of the Georgetown Presbyterian Church, two blocks from the Circle on North Bedford Street. Everyone is welcome and auditions are not required.

See more announcements on the Members Page.

SDCS Website

Dan Tabler designed and manages this site serving as Web Master and "in house" photographer. Please send Dan suggestions for improving this site. Proof readers welcome!

Site updated 9/6/10

The Ensemble

The Ensemble is a select group of the Choral Society's most talented singers. The Ensemble performs a variety of classical and contemporary music in a variety of smaller venues. Recent performances have included WSCL's Celebration of Music in Salisbury, Old Christ Church, Laurel, The Heritage, Dover and Community Lutheran Church, Frankford.

The Ensemble performed to a near SRO crowd at its traditional Christmas concert at the Sussex Correctional Institution on November 30th and again at Old Christ Church near Laurel on December 6th. The Ensemble also performed on the Freeman Stage on Memorial Weekend and again at Old Christ Church in June.

 WSCL's 2009 Celebration of Music

Support SDCS           Please consider supporting the Choral Society by making a donation or purchasing concert tickets. Any SDCS member can assist you with donations and tickets. Gail Launay can also assist you. Send her an email message or call 302 226-5231. 

Please visit the Support SDCS page for more information.  

Spring 2010 Dress Rehearsal

Eddie Launay Photo

Click on photo for a larger image.