Hello!

My name is Michelle Sedivy and I started a church choir by getting up during joys and concerns and lighting a candle, simply saying every Sunday, "For the growth of a choir!"

I have a degree in vocal music and have been in both auditioned and non auditioned choirs. I loved singing in professional choirs but wanted something different. When I was in middle school I was told to lip sync. That I did not have a voice! In high school I sang for my high school music teacher and he was impressed. He said he could give me voice lessons and I accepted the challenge. I practiced at home and before you knew  it , I was singing solos and descants because it turned out that I had a gift for singing high above the rafters. During my sophomore year I began taking lessons from a music professor at college. I achieved the goal of being in Chamber Singers, an a capella group at the college. Only eighteen people were in this group and I loved it. Until... I was diagnosed with MS and struggled with depression. Beyond that struggle was a knowing that I did not want to sing opera and sign contracts and be in snooty groups. I sang in the LGBT choir One Voice choir and Calliope, in Minneapolis which entailed contracts and long hours of preparation. Now don't get me wrong I loved it but something was missing. My heart just was not in it anymore.

When I moved to Mankato, MN I looked for a Unitarian Church. I had been in one in the cities and wanted to join the one in Mankato, but something was missing. They did not have a choir. So I started one. I could sing but never had never directed a  choir before and some of my members who joined were told to never sing. "Never sing! I would say, Please! Anyone can sing." Singing is another language and universal.  I have been directing this choir for thirteen years now and twelve of my members are still in the choir.  I believe my greatest accomplishment was not being in that eighteen member elite choir in college but starting this choir. I love teaching voice to people. I gave a thirteen year old member voice lessons. He was shy and wanted to sing but could not even hold one note. I worked with him for a year and he soloed Silent Night on Christmas Eve. I love it when someone says, "Wow, I really can sing! Last year the choir was big enough to sing eight parts. Several members had never sang and we pulled it off.

So where am I now?

A few years ago I filled out an application for community choir in Canada. Only fourteen applicants for the year. I thought there was no way I would make it in. I wrote an essay about my story and was chosen, however, was unable to come up with the funding. A friend of mine who is in my choir mentioned someone who went to Canada and took the work shop. After one year of going back and forth on this I finally reached out to her and well, here I am.

I am loving what I am seeing and hearing and hoping to delve into a workshop close to Mankato. As you can see, I am quite talkative but wanted to share my journey. For the last six years our choir sings at Central high, an inner city school that does not have a music program. These students are considered outcasts but really are our unsung heroes. If any high school deserved music at their graduation it was this school. Last year I had twenty four singers at their Graduation.

I want to do more of this! I want to bring people of all ages and experiences and sing! Sing for hope for our future and share love with our whole community. I hope to hear from you soon!

Yours musically,

Michelle