South Berwick Girls’ Choir looking for former members

In preparation for Canada 150 celebrations, the Town of Berwick is planning to reinstate its summer series of concerts in the park.

During discussions of who to invite to perform at these concerts, Carol Boylan-hartling with the town’s Department of Recreation thought it would be a good idea to invite the South Berwick Girls’ Choir to perform. However, the choir had its “final” concert 20 years ago on their 30th anniversary so now the search is on for former members to participate in this concert.

The choir was formed in the summer of 1967 by Netina Parrish as her centennial project. The original choir had 11 members and they began by performing at various functions of the Women’s Institute of Nova Scotia. Within a year, the choir had almost doubled in size, began wearing their iconic red and white uniforms and were singing at various secular functions, in churches and presenting their own full-length variety shows.

In 1968 Mary Magee joined the choir as their accompanist and continued to accompany them for the next 29 years. Netina Parrish directed the choir for the first 10 years, her daughter Tania then become the director. When Tania left to pursue her studies in music performance in Toronto, Isabella Parrish became the director of the choir and did so for nineteen years until their thirtieth anniversary in 1997 when they held their “final” performance.

At one time, there were so many members there were actually three choirs under the name of the South Berwick Girls’ Choir and members ranged in age from three to 27. Mary Magee and Lynn Hennigar Charleton both directed choirs shared duties as accompanists. For a short time there was even a boys choir as part of this musical group.

The choir never held auditions. It was important to Netina that any girl who wanted to sing had the opportunity to do so. She wanted the choir to be not only an opportunity for the members to develop their musical skills but also a place to help them gain confidence.

Former members who would like to participate in the concert in the park are asked to contact Carol Boylan-hartling as soon as possible via email cboylan@ berwick.ca or via Facebook for rehearsal details. The first rehearsal will be June 17 at the South Berwick Community Centre and the second will be the morning of the concert July 29th. The concert will be 2 p.m. July 29 at the Berwick Centennial Park.

Isabella Parrish will be directing the reunion choir. She is very excited to have this opportunity to make music and reminisce with so many people who were part of her life for thirty years.