On a recent evening at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, members of the Philomusica Chorale rehearsed for an upcoming concert, warming up with a little Henry Purcell from the 17th century, then a snippet of an opera score by Bizet and a 1950s show tune from Lerner and Loewe. 

But first, they wanted to sing the praises of their director, Gayle Wieand.

“One of Gayle’s great strengths is how she pulls a lot of very different music together around a theme. So we definitely have our sound. But you will never hear the same concert twice,” Sandy Connelly, choir member and president of the nonprofit choir’s board of directors, said.

Mindy Washington, who has sung with Philomusica since its inception, said she admired how Wieand steered the group through tough times, asking, “‘What does everybody bring to the organization? What are your strengths?’ And she got everyone to put their shoulders to the wheel.”

Chorister Susan Federico bragged of Wieand, “She’s a composer. She’s a professional singer. She sang opera on the stages of Europe!” 

An eclectic mix

The plaudits came as the group prepared to mark Wieand’s 20th anniversary as director of Philomusica — which marks its own 45th anniversary this spring — with its latest production, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” this Saturday.

The concert will explore the connection between music and sports, with choral and instrumental programming featuring Wieand’s signature mix of classical and pop compositions.  

“It used to be, the structure of a choral concert was a couple of pieces from this era, some from that era,” Wieand said. But creating a theme by combining selections from a variety of time periods and genres “is the kind of thing that floats my boat.” 

A lifetime sports fan and former member of Temple University’s marching band, Wieand has long considered the qualities shared by music and athletics. 

“The two big things that bring people together are music and sports, because they’re both participatory and spectator-y,” she said.

Wieand said she observed styles and rules in sports that closely correspond to forms and rules in music. “Musical forms like canons, with overlapping voices chasing after each other, are similar to relay races. Running up and down the court to score a basket looks like themes and variations in music. And blending intricate patterns of voices is as detailed as putting a successful play together on the pitch or gridiron.”

“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” will include not only selections explicitly about sports — from the ballpark classic that gives the show its name to “The March of the Toreadors,” from Bizet’s opera “Carmen” — but also several that demonstrate a more abstract connection.  

“You’ll hear sections where the music itself is a sport,” Connelly explained, where the singers’ voices “are volleying and fighting with one another.” 

Who’s on first?

The program’s mix of classical and popular music, with some jokes thrown in, is another Wieand signature, Connelly said, one that audiences very much appreciate. 

Wieand emphasized: “We are a classical choir.” But, she added with a grin, “We have had a rock band on stage with us, and we have played a bucket, and we sometimes collaborate with children and audience members.”

Wieand joined Philomusica in 2005, to direct the group of amateur singers founded 45 years ago by Mardia Melroy. Wieand, who also founded and directed the Philadelphia Women’s Music Project, has both composed and commissioned works for the chorale. 

Though Philomusica’s size waxes and wanes, the chorale has grown in recent years and now comprises more than 50 members, most drawn from Northwest Philadelphia and nearby Montgomery County, where Wieand lives.  

With its rehearsal and performance space at the Germantown Avenue church, Philomusica performs two seasonal concerts organized by Wieand, in winter and spring. They also sing in more intimate concerts for community organizations, senior homes and the like. During the COVID-19 pandemic, “We figured out how to do rehearsals on Zoom, and how to do performance on video, so we could keep doing concerts together and bring joy to the community,” Wieand said.

“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave. Tickets are $25 in advance, $35 at the door. The concert can also be viewed via livestream. For tickets and additional information, visit PhilomusicaChorale.org.