After more than a year’s hiatus due to Covid-19, this September Jersey City-based North River Sing Community Chorus will spring back to life with auditions in August and September, in-person rehearsals for fully vaccinated members, and a new slew of its signature Broadway and jazz standard songs. In January 2022 the chorus will also resume performing throughout metro Jersey City, something it’s done every year since its founding in 2014.
“I am ecstatic about the prospect of the NRS family getting together again and am looking forward to an exciting and successful return,” said executive director Josh Schmieder. “I can’t wait to bring our love of music and singing back to the community,”
North River Sing, or “NRS,” as its members call it, was the brainchild of Jersey City resident Liz Morrill, who missed her singing group in Manhattan after moving to Jersey City in 2000. A fan of show tunes and jazz standards, Morrill created NRS to give neighbors a chance to sing this much-loved repertoire in a community setting, conducted by a first-class music director. Since fall 2017, that conductor has been Conrad Chu.
Most of North River Sing’s members hail from Jersey City, but the group almost always boasts members from Hoboken, Bayonne, and beyond as well. Rehearsals take place Sundays from 6 to 8 p.m. (with a break over the summer) just blocks from the Grove Street PATH Station. Dues, which covers operating expenses, is $195 per five-month season with some limited financial aid available.
To join North River Sing, prospective members, who must be at least 18 years of age, can arrange to audition Sat., Aug. 7 from 4 to 6 p.m. or Wed., Sept. 8 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Downtown Jersey City. Tryouts are “super friendly and low-key,” emphasized Schmieder.” No formal voice training nor choral experience is necessary. All the chorus asks is that you love to sing and can stay on pitch and learn harmonies.