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Clara Belle Palmer DeLill is in her sixth season as Valley Chorus director. She first joined the Valley Chorus in 1966 when she was a senior in high school. She had her first solo with the group in her first December concert with the group. Since then she has had a 44 year association with the chorus only interrupted by her years away in college.
Then three years when she first became an instant mother of five when she married her husband Bob and when they added two more children. She started piano lessons at age of three, organ lessons at eight followed by voice lessons at ten. At seven she began accompanying her elementary school chorus and continued until high school when she changed to singing. She was fortunate to have many solos through high school, participating in every level of competition singing and as a result was a selected for choruses from county to the All-Eastern level.
While still in high school she began college courses at Oberlin Conservatory of Music between her junior and senior years in their accelerated bachelor of music program. After graduation from high school she continued her studies in Princeton, New Jersey at Westminster. She was a double major in music education and church music. While there she sang in the world renowned Westminster Choir and with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, Stokowski, Sir Arthur Bliss and many others.
She did graduate studies at Ithaca College. When returning to the Valley after college she rejoined the Valley Chorus and enjoyed many other opportunities to sing solos. When the group's originator, Art Rae, asked her to fill the accompanying needs, she reverted back to accompanying for the next 20 seasons. She still was given the chance to sing a few solos when asked by directors of the chorus. Her true love has always been singing as it is the ultimate form of musical performance with a direct line of communication to your listening audience.
Over a career spanning some 44 years she has held many church music positions not missing too many denominations in the process. At fourteen she was asked to assume the organist position for the Waverly Methodist Church. Belle is currently the organist and choir director at the Sayre Presbyterian Church, a position she has held for over 30 years.
She was a member of the vocal department staff at Waverly High School for eleven years. She has had a private teaching practice for piano, organ and voice instruction for the past 40 years. In her spare time she and her husband owned Kelly's Corner Ice Cream in Elmira for 15 years.
While doing her thing with marketing she discovered another hidden talent, one
with wax. She started reproducing some of their unique ultimate sundae
line with wax which, in 2000, became her newest challenge, her candle business,
Delightful Candle Designs. She continues to create and design many very
unusual candles, marketing them at juried art shows across the US. You can check
out her website on the internet at www.delightfulcandledesigns.com.
Larry Hoey is a consummate musician whose twenty-nine year affiliation with the Valley Chorus began in 1981.
During those years, Larry served as our guest accompanist. In 2004 he was
named our official accompanist.
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