Singer Spotlight: David Reier

What is/was your occupation?

I taught mathematics for 30 years at Shikellamy High School. I was union president and the first girls’ soccer coach. I am a PIAA official in Soccer and Track & Field. I am an alumnus of Susquehanna University and a Navy veteran. Leta Jo Maue and I were students together at York Township Elementary and Dallastown Area High School.

Aww…Leta Jo…we love her! And another mathematician; I think that makes three in this series so far…very cool. Thank you for your service to our country. It sounds like you’ve had an extremely active career.

Tell us, how many years have you been singing with the SVC?

I have been in the SVC since 1973 when I was a student at SU. I did not qualify for the University Choir, led by Cyril Stretansky, so he suggested the other group he conducted, the Susquehanna Valley Chorale. I have missed only 4 concerts in that time; once when I went to Lamaze classes in anticipation of my first son being born, once when he got married, and twice for Tuesday night classes at Bloomsburg University.

Ah…you’re a chorale veteran as well! We certainly do seem to have many lifetime members in our group.

What was your favorite concert or chorale season to date, and why?

My favorite concert is the one we are working on.

Haha…that’s a fantastic attitude!

Do you have any other musical involvements?

I am the choir director at Zion Lutheran Church in Sunbury and am a substitute organist.

Oh wow. The SVC is obviously quite familiar with that impressive structure. It must be such a joy to make music in a space like that on a regular basis. How have you been handling your responsibilities there under that role during the pandemic?

When other businesses shut down, so did we. We are currently closed. Choir was shut down since the virus is spread farther by singing.

We started producing an online service. We did eventually open without music or movement. Everyone wore masks and lots of social distancing. 35 to 50 people attended. The online video was played almost exclusively, even the sermon. When weather permitted, we worshipped in the biblical garden.

The video has evolved over the last several months. Videos of different parts of the service were recorded on cell phones. A few of us met at someone’s house and later at the church to record the hymns audio. In November we started a project to record Advent and Christmas anthems, similar to the way we were recording hymns. Each part met on Wednesday and recorded the part. The organist had recorded audio earlier and the voices made another track that was combined at the end. It took 4 Wednesdays, and the result was satisfactory, but certainly not perfect. However, the quality of the online production has certainly improved. I’m working on the logistics to produce an anthem for Easter.

For the hymn audio, we just started using GarageBand for this week’s service. We begin with the organist’s audio then each person in order adds his or her voice track and saves it to the cloud. The next person records and saves and so on. We are striving to involve more people without it becoming too unwieldy. It’s interesting and pretty slick. By the time we can open with no restrictions (maybe by Christmas?), we should really have a quality product.

You can view the results at www.zionlutheransunbury.com. GarageBand is an Apple app and comes installed on most Apple products. It is free at the App Store and is available for other platforms.

Whoa. I don’t even know how to respond. I’m overwhelmed just listening to that, but also excited and encouraged to hear that people aren’t giving up and doing everything they can to keep bringing music to the people. I can’t imagine all the time and effort required to make the happen. Technology truly saved the day when it came to the arts over the past year.

Do you have any other family members involved with SVC or SVYC?

My granddaughter, Emily Wetzel sang in the SVYC.

Very nice indeed. So, Dave, now that you’re retired…and besides SVC…how else do you like to spend your time?

I have ten children, including spouses; ten grandchildren, including a spouse; and two great-grandchildren. My wife, Maryann, and I enjoy bicycling. We go on rail trails and I will ride on roads around our home. It is my pandemic exercise. I rode 1856 miles in 2020. We also enjoy going to a lot of kids’ sporting events.

Ok…it’s official…you get the “gold star” for inspiring the masses. If that’s not incentive for all of us to be more productive and proactive in 2021, I don’t know what is.

Thanks for sharing, Dave, and keep up the great work!