{"id":22435,"date":"2025-04-29T21:23:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T03:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-valley-chorus-hits-the-road-again\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:14:06","slug":"mancos-valley-chorus-hits-the-road-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-valley-chorus-hits-the-road-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos Valley Chorus hits the road again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=33886a8b-1869-50a8-8a44-20a24cd40388&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"The Mancos Valley Chorus practices for their upcoming \u201cOn The Road Again\u201d spring tour at the Mancos United Methodist Church, 470 Grand Ave. in Mancos. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">The Mancos Valley Chorus practices for their upcoming \u201cOn The Road Again\u201d spring tour at the Mancos United Methodist Church, 470 Grand Ave. in Mancos. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>As the afternoon sun illuminated stained glass images of Lady Madonna and baby Jesus in the Mancos United Methodist Church, the Mancos Valley Chorus enlivened the airwaves, as the singers\u2019 sopranos and altos converged to create song.<\/p>\n<p>After a few breath exercises and Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do\u2019s, the chorus sang \u201cRoute 66\u201d to kick off rehearsal that Tuesday evening. From there, they worked their way through the set list for their upcoming spring tour of shows, \u201cOn The Road Again.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-scoreboard\">\n<h4 class=\"scoreboard-title\">Upcoming shows<\/h4>\n<p>Sunday, May 4: Mancos United Methodist Church, 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 6: Christ King Lutheran Chuch in Durango, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 7: Cortez United Methodist Church, 7 p.m. Friday, May 9: Mancos United Methodist Church, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt can mean literally on the road, or it means roads in life,\u201d said Marty Lordier, the chorus\u2019s treasurer. \u201cOr even boats, trains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lordier was alluding to some of the other songs they\u2019ll perform, like one she loves called \u201cFreedom Train.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love music and singing with good people,\u201d Lordier said. \u201cIt gives me joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone <em id=\"emphasis-e75d67c24881e08c7375c238a78837ca\">The Journal <\/em>spoke with that evening expressed similar sentiments of community and the joy of singing among friends and neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis gives me hope for a bright future, and it\u2019s a sense of belonging, too,\u201d said secretary and singer Becky Walker. \u201cI have community in chorus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maggie Gillette, the director of the chorus said, \u201cWe have a lot of fun, and I think that translates into our performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Pao0vbBxTXE\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Unlike other groups in the area, the Mancos Valley Chorus doesn\u2019t require auditions and is thus \u201clow stress\u201d by nature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we sound good. There\u2019s people here who like to sing, and when we pull our voices together, we good sound,\u201d said Gillette.<\/p>\n<p>Instruments \u2013 namely a piano, guitar, bass and drums \u2013 complement the songs. Some are performed as solos, duets, even quartets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe work really hard to put together a high-quality show,\u201d said Raleigh Cato, the president of the chorus. \u201cThere\u2019s familiar tunes, tunes you love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd it\u2019s familiar faces, singing,\u201d Vice President Carrie Schneider added. \u201cWe\u2019re your neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, more younger voices have joined, which has brought variety to the chorus\u2019 cumulative voice and new faces to the audience, said Susie Frye, a soprano singer.<\/p>\n<p>Amanda Vodicka, a local musician who joined this year, is one of the younger voices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve learned to challenge myself, and I\u2019ve met new people in the community,\u201d said Vodicka, smiling at her musical peers in the room. \u201cAlso, breath control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added that \u201cpeople should come because it\u2019s community art. People from all over the county come together and raise their voices together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Check out one \u2013 or several \u2013 of their upcoming shows in Montezuma County or Durango!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>tour is right around the corner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,83,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77711,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22435\/revisions\/77711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22435"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}