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The Avon Lake Women’s Chorus has performed for the Lorain County community for over three quarters of a century.
The choir group was formed in 1948 in Avon Lake.
Fran Niciolek, vice president of the Avon Lake Women’s Chorus, said women who sang at a local church created the group.
“Their husbands were coming home from the war, and the women were finally able to leave home a little bit more and they decided to get together and make a choir,” Niciolek said. “And, it’s been going on ever since.”
Niciolek has been vice president for 39 years.
“When I joined, there were actually 55 people in the group,” she said. “But, over the years, the moms started working and that was the biggest loss.
“We haven’t had those kind of numbers in years.”
The choir practices from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Mondays at the Old Firehouse Community Center, 100 Avon Belden Road in Avon Lake.
Lynda Guggenheim, president of the Avon Lake Women’s Chorus, said the group performs 12 concerts a year.
The choir targets independent and assisted living facilities, and memory care units to perform.
“When you look at the seniors, the people in the nursing homes and they hear the music, they know the words, they sing along and it wakes them up and makes them happy,” Guggenheim said. “I think that is part of the enjoyment.”
Niciolek said she is amazed by the patients who respond to the choir’s singing.
“They’re finding out that music is the last thing to go in people’s memories, so it’s amazing to watch the reaction of the people in the audience,” she said. “It’s really heartwarming and it makes you feel good.”
Niciolek said the group has always been welcoming.
“I had lost my mother very young, and the women there at that time, it was like being welcomed in by a bunch of other mothers,” she said.
Currently, the group sings a combination of songs from the 1950s and 1960s.
Bernadette Hisey, director of the Avon Lake Women’s Chorus, started her role with the group in 2024.
“I went to hear them sing in the spring, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t looking at a choir of cats on a fence because some people don’t have a sound,” Hisey said. “These ladies had a sound.”
She said her favorite part of directing the group is their receptiveness.
“At our last performance in December, the group started doing stuff I’ve been trying to get them to do, like swaying to the music,” Hisey said. “They were all so bubbly and excited about it, and they’ve been great.”
The women are what makes the group so entertaining, she said.
“This is a giant group of the golden girls; they all have those personalities,” Hisey said.
Guggenheim said the community the group has built is important to her.
“For some ladies, this is it, this is the only social thing they do during the week,” she said.
Guggenheim moved to Avon Lake during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I was moving here from Florida as a new widow, and I didn’t really know anybody,” she said. “I keep telling these guys at lunch, you guys are it for me.”
Guggenheim said she hopes to attract younger members to the group.
“A lot of us are dying off, it’s a sad truth,” she said. “We’ve been here since 1948, and we have to get some younger members again.”
Guggenheim said she wants the choir’s legacy to continue.
“We are a joyful group; we entertain and people just absolutely love us,” she said.
For more information on membership opportunities, contact Guggenheim at lyndaguggenheim@icloud.com.
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