Litchfield County Choral Union Carries On Long Tradition

Norfolk members of this year’s Litchfield County Choral Union, Bunny Jennings, Ernie Sinclair and Susie Hooker, rehearse for their upcoming performance in the Music Shed. Suzanne Bourdeaux, also a member, is missing from this photo.

By Sally Quale

As the heat of summer increases in Norfolk, so do the sounds of music. In addition to those strains emanating from the Norfolk Festival on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate under the aegis of the Yale School of Music and the newly arrived popular potpourri now raising the roof of Infinity Hall, one should bend an ear to catch the annual crescendos of grand choral music offered by the oldest musical organization in town, the Litchfield County Choral Union. This eminent institution was the original inspiration for the construction of the Music Shed and it was the precursor of Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel’s original “Norfolk Festival” in the first quarter of the 20th century, which brought musicians from around the world to our town. As described so well in Ann Havemeyer and Robert Dance’s “The Magnificent Battells,” it was in 1897 that Ellen Battell Stoeckel invited friends and neighbors to gather in the Stoeckel’s home, Whitehouse, for the weekly singing of English glees. This led to the creation of the Norfolk Glee Club in 1898, which then joined with the Winsted Glee Club to perform oratorios on a larger scale. Ellen Battell chose to name this larger chorus The Litchfield County Choral Union (LCCU), which was formally constituted in 1899 in memory of her fathe, Robbins Battell. Additional choral societies from neighboring towns in the county joined the union, and the Stoeckels constructed the now famous Music Shed in 1906 to accommodate its growing numbers. Upon completion, The Shed accommodated a chorus of 425 and an audience of 1,500. The Choral Union has not had an unbroken history over past century. There were no concerts beginning in 1939, following Ellen Battell Stoeckel’s death, until 1952 when it was reorganized, since then presenting an annual concert of a major choral work with orchestra in the Shed. Recent conductors have included Gustav Meier, Margaret Hillis, Fenno Heath and, currently, Jonathan F. Babbitt. The amateur community choral society is no longer the burgeoning musical and social institution it was a century ago. Today, the LCCU has a membership of about 60 singers from towns throughout Litchfield County. There are three singers from Norfolk-Suzanne Bourdeaux, Susie Hooker, and Ernie Sinclair-and ex-resident, but Norfolk native, Bunny Jennings. Bourdeaux, a 3-year LCCU singer, who is also a member of the United Church of Christ choir, finds it “great fun to be part of a singing group with such a long history. Jonathan Babbitt brings such a professional level of musicianship to amateur singers. Plus there is the fellowship.” Hooker claims membership in the LCCU for the past 32 years. Sinclair has sung on and off since the 1950’s, recently serving as LCCU president in 2007 and 2008. His enthusiasm for the group remains unbounded. “We are all so glad to be here singing,” he says. “We just wish there were more of us.” More of them there will be. For the concert itself, this year taking place Sunday, July 26 at 4 p.m. in the Music Shed, LCCU singers will be joined by members of the Swanhurst Chorus, a voluntary community chorus from Newport, Rhode Island, also directed by Jonathan Babbitt. The program includes Music of the Esterhazy Court: Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Te Deum” and “St. Nicolai Mass” and Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s “Mass in B-flat (Opus 77),” with The Litchfield County Choral Union Festival Orchestra. Tickets may be purchased at the door, or, for more information or reservations, call (860) 868-0739.