For years, members always knew where they’d be on Tuesday nights — rehearsing with friends at churches in Saranac Lake.

In August, the Singers’ board decided to cease operations.

“It was difficult, but it was the right path for us to take,” Singers’ Board President Rich Loeber said.

He said the choral group was a “victim of COVID.” They lost two-and-a-half seasons to the coronavirus pandemic and when they returned, many didn’t come back as their voices started aging out.

Adirondack Singers music director Karen Butters and Board President Rich Loeber speak at the Singers’ closing party on Sept. 24. (Provided photo)

The Singers’ closure will leave a gap in the region’s music and arts scene.

The Singers first came about as an outcropping of the North Country Community College Choral group. The NCCC choir was started in 1968 by George Reynolds, the head of the college’s music department.

After Reynolds’ death in 1986, the department closed.

“We said, ‘Well, we’ve got to keep the music going,'” singer Linda Warner said.

They became an independent group, forming a formal nonprofit charitable corporation and adopting the “Adirondack Singers” name.

Members of the Adirondack Singers gathered for a closing party on Sept. 24, where the group sang “Ashokan Farewell” to close out their 55-year run. (Provided photo)

Adirondack Singers Treasurer Beryl Szwed said, until the Saranac Lake-based Northern Lights Choir formed, the Adirondack Singers were the only year-round choral group in the Adirondacks.

Loeber said with the Northern Lights Choir, the tradition of choral music will continue in the Tri-Lakes.

Szwed joined the group right around when they formed as an independent organization. She had been singing with the Gregg Smith Singers in the summers at the Adirondack Festival of America Music and said she just loves singing. It is a fulfilling recreation and an artistic outlet.

“There’s just something about singing together that calms your nerves,” Loeber said. “Everybody in the choir, not only did they sing together, but they were great friends.”

He said the members all work and volunteer elsewhere in the community together.

Members of the Singers tend to be long-lasting. Loeber, a tenor, says he’s “only been with the group for a little over 20 years.” He and his wife had recently moved to the area in the early 2000s.

They had sung in church choirs for many years and were attending a church without one here. When they saw a notice in paper that rehearsals were starting, they tried it out and stayed for 21 years. Loeber said they stuck around for the “great group of people,” challenging singing and expressive music.

The Singers rehearsed at numerous churches around Saranac Lake, with members traveling from all over each week to join voices. They performed all over the Tri-Lakes and greater Adirondack region — band shells in village parks, concert halls and churches, nursing homes and independent living facilities

The choir varied in size from year to year with an average of about 35 voices.

The big event that all members recall was backing up country legend Kenny Rogers at two Christmas concerts at the Lake Placid Olympic Center — in 1984 and 2004. The 1984 concert was the largest one at the time, with around 10,600 in attendance filling the 1980 rink, before it became the Herb Brooks Arena.

“The instruments were so loud I don’t think anybody could hear us sing, but boy we had a good time,” Loeber said.

The experience was “exciting and challenging” Warner said. Szwed described the experience as “really scary,” especially since the singers had some dance steps sprung on them the night of the performance. Both said long-time music director Karen Butters played a key role in their success.

“We were flattered, because his (Rogers’) musicians told us we were the best group they had ever worked with,” Warner said.

Szwed said Adirondack Singers secretary Diane Peterson is organizing a Christmas concert at the Saranac Lake Adult Center this December, so they singers will still be around, but in a different form.

“A founding purpose was to provide music to the community, and we are sorry that we will no longer be able to do that after 55 years,” a statement from the Singers reads. “We also want thank all those who joined our voices over the years.”

On Sept. 24, the Singers gathered once more for a closing party with 20 current and former Singers attending for the group’s coda. They re-lived memories, honored Singers who are not longer living and closed by singing one of their favorite pieces, Jay Ungar’s “Ashokan Farewell.”

It was a fitting tune for the occasion, with its satisfied but mournful melody and lyrical themes of closure, change and memories.

“At the close of that song, there was not a dry eye in the house,” Loeber said.

Warner said a common misconception is that “Ashokan Farewell” was written for Ken Burns’ famous Civil War documentary series. She said the backstory actually stretches a few years earlier, during the closing of a music camp next to the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskills.

“They were closing the music camp and the campers had all left, but a lot of the staff were still there, closing down the camp,” Warner said.

The echoes of this song’s origin resonated into the Singer’s final performance — their thoughts returning to the sound of laughter, the magic and music as they sung the words, “Will every song we’ve sung stay with us forever?”