Master voices to celebrate season
By Jenna Buehler Comet writer-intern

A masterful rehearsal Carroll County resident Debbie Glenn directs the Master's Voice Singers Home School Choir in rehearsal for the upcoming concert Dec. 6. Comet photo by Debbie Lowe

When Carroll County resident Debbie Glenn created the Master's Voice Singers Home School Choir in 1991, she had two goals. She wanted to give homeschooled students an opportunity to be in a choir and to teach them to sing properly.

Today, Glenn's choir is composed of 30 students from 19 families, who travel from the areas of Burrows, Frankfort, Logansport, Peru, Rossville, and West Lafayette. They rehearse from the fall to spring, once a week in the afternoon.

The choir now holds 17 practices before their final spring performance.

"Our choir began as one big one, in conjunction with the Wabash Valley Home Education Choir Co-op," Glenn explained. "We met beginning in the fall, every other Wednesday. But with so few practices, and with kids of different capabilities, we'd have only four songs prepared for our spring program.

"It felt as though we always took two steps forward and one step back," she continued. "So, four years ago I started out on my own."

Interested 'voices' in the seventh to twelfth grades attend auditions in mid-August. Accepted members are guided under intense instruction. Glenn allows no more than three absences and enforces a modest dress code. High expectations yield highly qualified 'master singers,' in Glenn's opinion. As a result, she claims every year as her favorite year.

"I love teaching the choir," concluded Glenn. "It brings me great joy to see the students learn to appreciate the beauty of communicating the special message of Christ though music."

The choir's upcoming concert is Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the First Baptist Church, 103 S. Indiana Street in Delphi. It is free and open to the public. Contact Glenn at (765) 564-4882 or glenns8@verizon.net for more information.