Saturday, March 18, 2023 | 7:30 PM
Bridge View Center, Ottumwa

Many OACC adult chorus singers performed with others from SE Iowa in the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra’s (SEISO) “Masterworks II-Mystical Footprints” Concert! The collaborative chorus (w/OACC singers) performed Wagner's triumphant Prelude and Bridal Chorus from the opera Lohengrin (“here comes the bride”, but in German!), followed by Willamette Spencer’s “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners” and Vaughan Williams’ “Five Mystical Songs” featuring soloist baritone Blair Buffington. These concerts evening also included a performance by the Marilyn Minford McCoid Young Artist Competition winner Mattias Luitjens, playing Henryk Górecki's relentless Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

The “Masterworks Series Concerts” are presented by SEISO three times a year, and they are performed in three cities all in one weekend. These performances are given in Ottumwa, Mt. Pleasant, and Burlington. For tickets and more information about other upcoming performances and concerts, visit www.SEISO.us

Sunday, January 15, 2023 | 2:00 PM First Presbyterian Church, Ottumwa

The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus (both adults and children) accepted an invitation to perform in the Ottumwa City-Wide Celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday! The celebration took place on Sunday, January 15th, at 3:00 PM, at First Presbyterian Church. Other local choruses joined OACC for a final powerful song, and we performed a song entitled “I Have a Dream” on our own as well. This was a very important and meaningful event, and we were humbled and grateful to be asked to be a part of it!!

We recently presented a full-length fall concert entitled “Anything Goes”, which featured some of our favorite songs from all of our previous fall concerts, selected by our singers! Themes from past fall concerts included “Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber”, “Disney Extravaganza”, “African-American Spirituals and Songs from South Africa”, and “I Got Rhythm-Music of Gershwin”.

After the significant challenges faced by all performance groups due to the long-lasting aftereffects of the impact of COVID-19, OACC made a conscious decision to try and find a way to breathe new life back into our two community choruses.  The decision was made to invite singers from Ottumwa and Southeast Iowa to join with OACC in order to perform a “Messiah Sing Along”, as an excellent way to accomplish this critically important goal, both for the OACC and for the other choirs from which many of the singers came.

OACC typically caravans all over the Ottumwa community to rehab centers and nursing homes, on an annual “two-hour tour”; singing 15-20 minutes worth of Christmas Carols in 4- part harmony. Since it was not possible to go to any of these places and sing for all the residents and patients in the midst of COVID-19, we decided to perform a virtual (no audience) Christmas Eve Service, in which singers were placed at least 8’ apart, in every other pew, and fully masked for the entire service.

The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus presents its 2019 Fall concert, “I Got Rhythm”, featuring the exciting and masterful music of George Gershwin (1898-1937). The concert will feature both the adult and children’s choruses, performing separately as well as together. The program includes examples of the wide range of styles, tempos, and compositional techniques so masterfully used by Gershwin, including the influences of classical, jazz, and popular music.

The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus presents its 2018 Fall concert, “A Million Dreams”, featuring African American Spirituals and Songs from South Africa. African American spirituals are an integral and powerful part of the history of our country. They represent the period of time when the south allowed slavery to flourish and were commonly found both before and during civil war times.

The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus, under the new direction of Dr. Christine Bergan, presents its 2016 Fall concert, “An Evening of Andrew Lloyd Webber.” The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus was originally founded as a chorus for adult singers only, however, Dr. Bergan has developed a brand-new community children’s chorus for the first time in its history.