Director Carolyn Welch told the sopranos of the Lawrence’s Crescendo Choir to take one finger and make a circling, helicopter motion in the air as they sang an arrangement of W.B. Yeats’ poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” during a rehearsal on Tuesday.

The lyrics “There midnight’s all a glimmer” were proving tricky, slurring together since all syllables were the same note. The helicopter trick transformed the sound into a fully realized musical phrase, flowing and unfolding even without a changing tone — and without any need for further articulation on Welch’s part.

Choir member Mininder Kaur understands the way music can weave into your life.

She said she comes from a tradition of sound where signing is part of daily life, having grown up in India before moving to Lawrence in 1996.

“Can I just say that it is a prerequisite to joy?” Kaur said, in reference to signing. “… It is a requirement for joy.”

Crescendo Choir is a nonprofit adult choir with a “come one, come all” attitude. 

“You want to be a part of something that has some significance for you, and maybe significance for the greater public, the world, and music fits that bill really well,” Janeal Krehbiel said. She co-founded the Lawrence Children’s Choir and Crescendo with Marilyn Crabb Epp.

“When you get to be older, it’s easy to feel like you can’t participate because you don’t know how to sing Western music, or you feel inadequate,” she continued.

Crescendo provides a salve. There are no auditions, it doesn’t cost to participate and you won’t find anyone taking attendance at the start of a rehearsal.

People who can’t read Western music notation can turn to audio recordings Welch posts on her website in order to learn the broad and largely secular repertoire.

Accompanist Joyce Jordan said everyone is on a level playing field — literally — as they sit during rehearsals and performances.

“That is such a big ‘yes’ to this, to this group, because, for example, I went through all of chemotherapy, and I have terrible neuropathy, and … I can’t stand very well at all,” Krehbiel said.

The Lawrence community can enjoy a seated benefit concert starting at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8 in the River City Church sanctuary, 3001 Lawrence Ave.

Two of the LCC groups will sing before Crescendo will take the stage, followed by a joint performance totaling less than an hour. The event is free to attend, but donations will go to the Baker Wetlands.

The world of song filtered through Lawrence voices

Krehbiel moved to Lawrence in 1990 to start a children’s choir. Years later, she needed to move her parents to town to care for them. On the drive over, her father started crying in the passenger seat.

He already felt the void left by his men’s chorus group, which he sang in for 53 years. Krehbiel reflexively promised to start a choir for him, but by that point, she had two LCC subgroups going and was teaching full-time. 

“I just thought ‘Janeal, what did you say? Why did you open your freaking mouth?’ I was so mad,” she said, laughing.

Krehbiel stuck to her word. In 2009, she struck up Crescendo choir at Presbyterian Manor, where she had moved her father. Krehbiel passed the directing baton to Welch in 2012, but still joins the warblers every week she can.

After years at Presbyterian Manor, the group started rehearsing at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1245 New Hampshire St., following the peak of COVID. With the new location, their numbers surged.

“The group has changed in its composition quite a lot,” Welch said. “It’s always been seniors and friends, and lots of friends have come.”

“Friends” has a loose definition. Crescendo’s youngest songbird, Naomi, is a kiddo in fifth grade. Naomi said she loves to tag along to choir practice with her grandparents.

Kaur first tagged along with Krehbiel because she wanted to learn more about Western music.

“I am the only Brown person in the whole (group), which has never stopped me before,” Kaur said.

Still, the first rehearsal was frightening, but Krehbiel’s presence rooted Kaur until she got her footing. Now, Kaur says she and her fellow vocalists are singing a new America into existence; in a politically turbulent time, she’s found communal grounding through music.

Welch said Crescendo’s decades of evolution has led to increased inclusivity in their repertoire. 

Sunday’s performance will include a Mozart composition in English, a Sudanese piece called “Famine Song,” a ditty that was cut from the original “The Wizard of Oz” movie and more.

“The world of song is so incredibly wide and deep,” Welch said. “I mean, it connects us backward through time. It connects us to cultures. It connects us to emotion.”

Learn more about the Lawrence Children’s Choir and Crescendo at this link. Folks can make monetary contributions to the groups here.

Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

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