Miami Choral Collective brings university and community together through music
A new choir is made up of both Oxford residents and Miami students and faculty is set to hold its debut concert soon.
The Miami Choral Collective is bringing choral music to the greater Oxford community in collaboration with Miami University. The choir, which first began rehearsing this fall, will hold its debut concert, a holiday-themed performance, on Dec. 2 at Hall Auditorium.
Jeremy Jones, Miami’s interim chair in the department of music and director of choral activities, is one of the co-founders of Miami Choral Collective, along with Reina Dickey, an assistant professor at Miami in the choral department.
“The Miami Choral Collective was really designed as a way to bring together members of our community, Oxford community or even beyond the area of Oxford, faculty, staff and students into a space where they can enjoy music making together,” Jones said. “So this has been kind of a dream of mine for several years.”
Jones said he’s excited to develop the choir more through the semesters and years ahead. Jones has noticed a strong passion for choral music in Miami and Oxford during his 15-year career at the university.
A choir like the Collective provides an artistic experience where people can give back to the community, Jones said. The over 40-member ensemble rehearses Wednesday evenings, and Jones hopes the choir grows even larger, potentially reaching numbers of 75-100 members.
“I would love to see our membership grow to that number and get more faculty and more students involved, and, of course, more community members and alumni too,” Jones said. “That would be a huge goal.”
People interested in attending the upcoming concert can get their tickets at the online box office.
Dickey echoed Jones’ comment about using the choir to bring the university and the community together, emphasizing the importance of the student component in the choir. Dickey said that Miami used to have two mixed voices choral groups, but now there is only one. The Miami Choral Collective provides not only an additional group to sing in a mixed choir, but an opportunity for Oxford residents to get involved.
“I love working with community members,” Dickey said. “I work with a community choir in Cincinnati as well, and it’s so refreshing to be able to work with an intergenerational ensemble that kind of connects students to people who live in Oxford.”
Dickey said she enjoys seeing the people involved form relationships with each other and watching them work together to create something that reflects all aspects of this community.
“I think music creates spaces that essentially are welcome to creating deeper connections and authentic connections,” Dickey said.
The group is not auditioned and is open to everyone regardless of experience or skill level. People interested in joining can contact Jones or Dickey directly and find more information on the Miami University Music Department website.
In the upcoming concert, the Miami Music Collective will be performing Vivaldi’s “Gloria,” a traditional Latin piece that runs almost 30 minutes long. The piece will be accompanied by a live orchestra and is rhythmically active. It will be followed by a selection of traditional holiday carols and the audience will be invited to sing along.
Michael Conger, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at Miami University, sings with the choir and sits on its organizing committee. He helps with planning, recruiting, advertising and more.
Conger has been singing for most of his life. He said he and Jones have been talking about creating a community choir for a while, and that the lack of one felt like a missing piece.
“It’s a really fun and satisfying and enriching kind of activity just to sing with people,” Conger said. “I love doing that, so it’s the highlight of my week to go and rehearse with people and singing together.”
Conger met his wife in his college choir, and since both of their kids also enjoy singing, this choir provides an opportunity for all four of them to sing together as a family.
Conger said he hopes the choir continues on in years to come and wants to see the group expand and find other ways to connect the community through music.
Diana Kwak and Courtney Reckelhoff both serve on the student advisory board for the choir. Kwak is a senior choral general music education major at Miami, and Reckelhoff is studying marketing and emerging technology in business and design. Both are involved in Miami’s choirs.
Reckelhoff, who sings with the Choraliers at Miami, first found out about the choir when she received an email from Dickey inviting her to be a member of the student board. She accepted, and now serves on the board helping with branding and marketing. She also sings with the choir as a female tenor.
“It’s really cool,” Reckelhoff said. “I think the connection with students too is very valuable, because you may have community members that come to the concerts and whatnot, but being able to actually share the music and talk with them and get to know community members and community members and students, it’s definitely something very valuable.”
Kwak first joined the board as a founding member in winter 2023 when she learned there were plans to create a community ensemble. She said that as an out-of-state student at Miami, being involved in this choir helped her feel like a part of the greater Oxford community.
“We say that our mission is to bring together people from the college and the community in a shared love of music,” Kwak said. “And that’s probably my favorite thing about it, because personally, I love community choirs, and I love the energy that they can bring.”
