Looking for a Daytime Choir in Atlanta? Meet the Daylight Chorale

To fill out an interest form, click here.

ATLANTA — For singers who miss being in a choir, want more music in their lives, or simply have a free hour on Thursday mornings, Harmonia Atlanta’s Daylight Chorale offers an easy way to get singing. The ensemble meets Thursdays from 11 a.m. to noon and is open to choral singers without an audition. This season, Daylight Chorale welcomes Donald Milton III as its new conductor—a return to an organization he knows well.

Harmonia Atlanta’s daytime chorus offers a low-lift, high-joy opportunity to sing—no audition required

Milton previously served as conductor of Harmonia Atlanta when the organization was known as the DeKalb Choral Guild. He now returns with decades of experience as a conductor, arts leader, educator, and advocate for lifelong singing. “My hope for Daylight Chorale is pretty simple: low lift, high joy,” Milton said. “There are a lot of people who love to sing but don’t necessarily want to add a demanding rehearsal and performance schedule to their already full lives. We want this to be a place where people can come together for an hour, make good music, enjoy one another, and leave happier than when they arrived.” The daytime schedule also makes Daylight Chorale an option for singers whose lives don’t fit the traditional evening community-choir model, including retirees, people with flexible work schedules, and anyone looking for a welcoming musical community during the day.

Milton brings a particular interest in helping people continue singing throughout their lives. He is the author of The Second Voice Change: The Aging Voice, a book exploring how voices change as singers grow older and how singers can adapt to those changes while continuing to make music. He has presented his work on the aging voice for more than a decade to singers and music educators around the country and internationally. That philosophy is a natural fit for Daylight Chorale: singing does not have to be something people give up because their voices have changed, because they no longer want the pressure of an auditioned ensemble, or because their schedules and priorities are different than they once were. “Your voice at 65 or 75 isn’t supposed to be exactly the voice you had at 25,” Milton said. “That doesn’t mean it’s time to stop singing. One of the things I care about deeply is creating places where people can keep using the voices they have now and keep enjoying musical community.”

A longtime presence in Atlanta’s choral community, Donald currently serves as Artistic Director of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus and is the founder of SkyPunchATL, which creates participatory community music events built around the joy of singing for singing’s sake. His career has also included leadership of the Atlanta Master Chorale and music ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, in addition to his earlier tenure with the DeKalb Choral Guild.

Harmonia Atlanta hopes to introduce Daylight Chorale to a much larger community of singers. It is open to experienced choristers who want another chance to sing, former choir members who would like to return to music, and singers looking for a community ensemble without the barriers or time commitment that can accompany more intensive groups. Beyond enjoying an hour of rehearsal and community every week, the Daylight Chorale performs occasionally at community events and retirement facilities.

“Atlanta has an enormous number of people who have sung in choirs at some point in their lives,” Milton said. “Some haven’t sung in years. Some are already singing somewhere else and would happily add another hour of music to their week. I want them to know we’re here.”

Daylight Chorale meets Thursdays from 11 a.m. to noon at Oakhurst Baptist Church and is part of Harmonia Atlanta.