Nearly 50 years ago, a few members of the congregation at Brooklyn Community United Methodist Church in Brooklyn Park performed at its bicentennial celebration.

“They got together, they sang a few songs, everybody was happy,” Sharon Igoe von Behren said. “The upshot is that they loved singing together — they really, really loved it.”

Within a year, the chorus was made permanent, and the Arundel Singers were born in 1977 as an all-volunteer choral group based in Glen Burnie, said von Behren, who joined the chorus in 1978 and has directed it since 1988.

Over the years, membership swelled to more than 80 singers who performed old-time favorites, religious hymns and Christmas carols at area churches and nursing homes across northern Anne Arundel County. The group performed for former president Ronald Reagan at a festival and even traveled to Carnegie Hall in New York for a winter gala, von Behren said.

“It’s the highlight of any musician’s career, really,” she said of singing in New York. “And I can say yes, I was there.”

All of the Arundel Singers’ concerts are free.

“We do this because this is our community service,” she said. “We love to sing, and we love to share.”

Like many volunteer-based organizations, the group was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2020, members decided to stop rehearsals and reevaluate resuming performances when things calmed down.

During that last rehearsal, von Behren said, all of the remaining members agreed that they wanted to keep singing.

“We wanted to keep doing this, and that we couldn’t imagine … [putting] an end to it,” she said.

So, the chorus waited for the restrictions to lift.

“Well, once things got a little further along, COVID had destroyed rehearsals and meetings and everything,” von Behren said. “We actually had one of our members die from COVID about a month after we stopped rehearsals.”

For the next three seasons, von Behren followed the news on variants and vaccines, wondering how the group could safely sing again. It wasn’t until last fall that rehearsals resumed.

“It was just like [a] real back in the saddle type thing,” she said. “Here we are, let’s do this.”

Now, von Behren is looking to rebuild.

That process started with a winter performance in December. Back from a four-year hiatus, the Arundel Singers performed at Inspirations Assisted Living & Memory Care in Linthicum.

“[The residents] love it,” said Leona Harris, the activity coordinator for the Linthicum facility. “They move in their wheelchairs like they’re dancing; some of them sing with them, and some of them were standing up, even dancing.”

Boosting dwindling membership is also a priority. Before the pandemic, the chorus was 25 strong. When the group revived in the fall, 12 returned. With the death of a member this spring, they’re down to 11 with a more limited range of voices, which makes finding choral pieces difficult.

Von Behren, who is 68, is determined to pass on the traditions to a younger member.

“I’m getting up there too, so I have to make sure that this doesn’t end with me — I would hate to have that happen,” she said. “I would like to be able to interest someone else, to pique someone else’s interest in this sort of thing, so that they also would pick up the torch and continue carrying it and continue the music, continue the service.”

No auditions are required, and neither is knowing how to read music or sing. “You get to sing with everybody else who’s learned the same thing at the same time, and you are all each other’s buddy,” she said.

Rehearsals will begin Aug. 19. They will be held every Monday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Community Church of God in Glen Burnie. For more information on joining, contact von Behren at sligoe52@yahoo.com.

“If you like to sing and you want to sing, this is the place for you,” von Behren said.