The Pennsylvania Summer Choral Society (PSCS) is a volunteer-run community choir that brings singers and musicians from across central Pennsylvania together each summer to rehearse and perform quality choral music. Since our first concert in 2024 we have grown from about 80 singers to more than 150, and with instrumentalists we now number about 200 members, including numerous high-school students who sing side by side with adults of all ages. Our members come from Centre, Huntingdon, Blair, Bedford and Cambria counties; we rehearse in Huntingdon, Martinsburg and Johnstown, and each summer we sell 800 to 1,200 concert tickets and also give free public performances.

We keep membership open to everyone. Dues are $25 and are waived for anyone who cannot pay, and our director takes no salary. But every singer still needs a score and a way to practice between weekly rehearsals. Choral music is expensive, and for a high-school student or a member whose dues are waived, not having a personal score or part recordings is the difference between keeping up and falling behind.

Our awesome project for the 2027 season: Every Singer Gets the Music. A $1,000 grant would buy printed scores and part-specific rehearsal tracks for our student singers and dues-waived members, so that cost is never the reason someone goes without the music. Students would take the scores home, mark them up, and practice with tracks that play their own voice part, which helps young singers learn their parts with confidence.

The result: more young people from Centre County and its neighbors learning serious choral repertoire alongside adult mentors, and performing it for audiences across the region next summer.