After the significant challenges faced by all performance groups due to the long-lasting aftereffects of the impact of COVID-19, OACC made a conscious decision to try and find a way to breathe new life back into our two community choruses.  The decision was made to invite singers from Ottumwa and Southeast Iowa to join with OACC in order to perform a “Messiah Sing Along”, as an excellent way to accomplish this critically important goal, both for the OACC and for the other choirs from which many of the singers came.

OACC typically caravans all over the Ottumwa community to rehab centers and nursing homes, on an annual “two-hour tour”; singing 15-20 minutes worth of Christmas Carols in 4- part harmony. Since it was not possible to go to any of these places and sing for all the residents and patients in the midst of COVID-19, we decided to perform a virtual (no audience) Christmas Eve Service, in which singers were placed at least 8’ apart, in every other pew, and fully masked for the entire service.

The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus presents its 2019 Fall concert, “I Got Rhythm”, featuring the exciting and masterful music of George Gershwin (1898-1937). The concert will feature both the adult and children’s choruses, performing separately as well as together. The program includes examples of the wide range of styles, tempos, and compositional techniques so masterfully used by Gershwin, including the influences of classical, jazz, and popular music.

The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus presents its 2018 Fall concert, “A Million Dreams”, featuring African American Spirituals and Songs from South Africa. African American spirituals are an integral and powerful part of the history of our country. They represent the period of time when the south allowed slavery to flourish and were commonly found both before and during civil war times.

The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus, under the new direction of Dr. Christine Bergan, presents its 2016 Fall concert, “An Evening of Andrew Lloyd Webber.” The Ottumwa Area Community Chorus was originally founded as a chorus for adult singers only, however, Dr. Bergan has developed a brand-new community children’s chorus for the first time in its history.