In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Choral Group Submission Form

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The first week of July 1896, the Daily News contained daily announcements of the upcoming July 7th performance of the Pensacola Choral Society. The community clamored for a repeat of the successful Easter performance, and the Pensacola Choral Society prepared to comply: "The managers of the Pensacola Choral Society are receiving numerous letters from competent musical critics congratulating them upon having secured Mr. Burbank to sing the baritone music of Haydn's Creation, at their concert, July 7th, as it is said his voice is grand in the rendition of those beautiful portions of the music."

However, the Daily News on July 7, 1896, reported the "Cedar Key Hurricane" caused severe weather damage in Pensacola. For several days, the paper described swamped and demolished ships, electrical, telegraph, and telephone service interrupted, and homes without roofs and chimneys. The African-American community lost their church and blocks of "shanties" simply disappeared. Streetcar traffic was suspended, bridges collapsed, and transportation was at a standstill, including special trains procured from the Terminal Company to deliver patrons to the concert.

The evidence that the show did not go on appeared in the July 9, 1896, Daily News: "Mr. S. M. Burbank and Miss Lucia Nola left on the noon train yesterday, the former for his home in Atlanta and the latter to her home in Mobile. The public regrets that it was deprived of hearing these two distinguished singers in the Choral Society's concert."

Did the society attempt to reorganize again before 1935? A photo caption beneath a group of thirteen women in formal white dresses and seven men in black suits and ties reads "Pensacola Vocal Society 1915." Pensacola valued the addition of an organized civic choral organization to their community and continued attempts to form one. A series of fortuitous events over time finally provided the elements that produced an enduring community chorus. Mrs. John Boschen (1901-1994), a member of the Pensacola Music Study Club, founded in 1911, wanted to provide a portion of Handel's Messiah for the club's 1935 Christmas program. Mr. Edwin Northup (1883-1940), choir director of Christ Episcopal Church, agreed to serve as director for the performance. Singers, recruited from church choirs and members of the Music Study Club, included Mr. and Mrs. Boschen, who were soloists for the first Messiah performance. This same untitled group of singers would be later recognized as the Pensacola Choral Society (1940-1945), the Pensacola Oratorio Society (1946-1983), and, ultimately, the Choral Society of Pensacola (since 1983).">

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