Community Choir Gladsong To Perform At Apple Blossom Festival

The community inspirational choir GladSong will begin its season this year with a performance at the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival. 

The group typically performs at fundraisers for local nonprofit groups and has helped raise more than $111,000 since 2021. 

GladSong director Tim Meyer says they always perform at no charge and are not involved in the transfer of money. 

"There's a hat passed or there's a basket at the back of the room as people leave or as they're coming in, whatever their wishes," said Meyer. "They leave their donations or their contributions. And then the organization takes the money from there. It never touches our hands." 

GladSong will perform on the final Sunday of this year's Apple Blossom Festival in Memorial Park in Wenatchee 

It’ll be the group’s only shows that won’t be connected to a charity fundraiser. 

Meyer says the GladSong fulfills three purposes. 

"We feel like we're, sort of, fulfilling our mission, which is to encourage the singer, ourselves, by singing together, and inspiring others with the positive messages of the songs, and then finally benefitting the community through helping nonprofits and local charities monetarily." 

The group started in June of 2021. One of its first shows raised close to $23,000 for the Friends of Ukrainian Families in Wenatchee. A concert for Safe Families for Children raised $22,000, according to Meyer. 

The group's 32-song repertoire includes Manhattan Transfer’s “Operator,” Steven Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle,” Chicago’s “Make Me Smile,” The Beatles’ “Got to Get You Into My Life,” and “Evidence,” by Josh Baldwin, Ed Cash, and Ethan Hulse. 

The choir currently has 38 members, which almost fills up the choral risers it performs on. 

GladSong began weekly rehearsals on March 3, coming off a three-month winter break. 

Upcoming GladSong shows benefitting nonprofits include: 

• May 19 at and for the Wenatchee Valley Senior Activity Center 
• June 9 at Grace Lutheran Church for Mobile Meals of Wenatchee  
• June 30 at the Wenatchee National Guard Armory to benefit North Central Washington Veterans Serving Veterans;  
• July 12 at the Leavenworth Red Barn for the Wenatchee River Institute 
• Aug. 11 at Eastmont Community Church for the North Central Washington Chaplain Foundation.