Pendel Youth Band & Chorus Visit Lancaster, PA

The Pendel Youth Band and Chorus spent a wonderful weekend in Lancaster, PA in March 2023. Saturday March 11 saw the Youth Band and Chorus come together in the morning for rehearsals, lunch and devotions. The afternoon saw some more rehearsals before some downtime at the hotel. Following this, the group headed to Woodcrest Villa retirement community to present a concert for the residents. Woodcrest Villa has a beautiful concert space and the young people were greeted enthusiastically by those in attendance.

The Youth Band presented a number of varying items during the concert including: Fanfare Prelude: Praise My Soul (James Curnow), Songs Without Words (Michael Kenyon), Abide With Me (Robert Redhead) and The King (Marcus Venables). The contributions of the Youth Chorus included: African Psalm (Patrick Liebergen), Heart Song (Harold Burgmayer) and Praise You (Carol Cymbala). Eugene Lim from the Philadelphia Citadel Corps beautifully presented the cornet solo – I Love You, Lord (Matthew Ingram) and Alexander Williams from the East Stroudsburg Corps gave his testimony. The evening came to an end with the sneak peak premiere of Uprising by Fred Mbesi. This new piece uses the song “The Power of Your Love” and well as some references to the theme from the Rocky movies.

Following the concert, the young people had some time to rest and relax at a local bowling alley.

Sunday March 12 saw the young people join with the congregations of the Lancaster Citadel and Temple Corps for worship. As well as providing preliminary music and accompanying the congregational singing, the band’s contribution to the meeting was “I Love You, Lord” featuring Eugene Lim once more. Selaya Abraham from the Philadelphia Citadel Corps gave her testimony. The Youth Chorus sang Heart Song, For Your Mission and Praise You. A wonderful weekend together was concluded with the Youth Band playing Open Invitation featuring the song, “Deep and Wide”.