Valley Harmony to ‘Rise Up and Sing’

Have you ever wanted to cross a fast moving stream but there was neither boat nor bridge? That’s what those who are wheelchair bound experience just about every day. Owego’s Coburn Free Library is a striking physical structure – first opened in 1912 – with wonderful resources for the community, but it is not handicap accessible. 

On Saturday, April 1, the Valley Harmony will present “Rise Up and Sing” at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, located at 117 Main St. in Owego, at 7 p.m. Joining Valley Harmony will be mezzo soprano Kathy Starks from Johnson City; Patricia O’Connell from Owego, French horn; and Katie Schulthies of Binghamton, piano.

Proceeds from the free will offering taken at the concert and from the advertisements placed in the concert program by generous Owego businesses will be shared between the Coburn Free Library Elevator Fund and St. Paul’s Building Fund.

If you like 60’s music, Valley Harmony will serenade you with such favorites as “Hooked on a Feeling” and “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” Want something older? How about “What’ll I Do?” or “Over the Rainbow”? Valley Harmony will even give you something very new, like Ola Gjeilo’s “Ubi Caritas” (2009) and Pentatonix’ “Run to You” (2013).  

Providing even more variety, Kathy Starks, accompanied by Katie Schulthies on piano, will sing a few show tunes including “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables and “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls. Patricia O’Connell will tap into the classical scene with Vasily Kalinnikov’s “Chanson Triste” and Rossini’s “Languir per una Bella” from L’ Italiana in Algeri. And Katie Schulthies won’t let you leave without hearing a little ragtime, like Scott Joplin’s “Solace.”

Valley Harmony is an all male a cappella quartet founded by George Lohmann in 2007. Mike Sheldon (Berkshire) sings tenor, Randy Kerr (Newark Valley) and J. Ladd Yost (Nichols) alternate baritone and tenor, and Lohmann (Berkshire) sings bass.  

Don’t think of them as just a barbershop quartet, because besides singing that sort of music they sing pop, oldies, show tunes, sacred, gospel and classical.