About
The History of Tucson’s Sing-in
In 1977, when the Temple of Music and Art was privately owned, had fallen into disuse and was struggling for survival, several members of the Friends of the Temple of Music and art, specifically Peggy Damsky, Connie McConnell and Susan Jackson, conceived the Annual Community Messiah Sing-In to demonstrate to the community that the facility was viable and that it could function as originally intended. The first Sing-In was conducted by John Bloom, with soloists Nancy Davis Booth, Lois Shelton, Frank Rotolo and Russell Marshall. The chorus parts were provided by an audience of some 200 singers. The first four Sing-In’s were held in the Temple.
By 1981, the Temple was in use as a movie theater and the Friends had been disbanded, but the Sing-In had developed a life of its own. The venue switched to Catalina Methodist Church in 1981, followed by seven years at Trinity Presbyterian Church, and the size of the chorus swelled to nearly 800, severely taxing the available facility.
In 1989, the steering committee incorporated as the non-profit Tucson Sing-In, Inc., and moved to Christ Community Church to accommodate the ever-increasing chorus size, which now numbers more than 1,200. Grace Chapel (now Grace to the Nations) became the Sing-In’s home in 1997. The community flavor of the Sing-In has been perpetuated by the varying locales within Tucson, the strong local ties of the conductors and soloists, and by our policy of not charging admission, relying upon the generous donations of the participants. In 2014 Tucson Sing-In moved back to Christ Community Church.
We fondly remember our long-time conductor Dr. Jeffry Jahn, who passed away in February 2015.
Tucson unexpectedly lost a precious treasure on Friday, February 20, 2015 when Jeffry was peacefully taken to his heavenly home. He was born on December 21, 1959 in McPherson, KS to beloved parents, Allen and Barbara Jahn who, together with Uncle Wayne, loved, nurtured, educated, and guided him. They have shared a friendly competition for birding since Jeffry’s grade school years. Jeffry’s love for God, family, and music was infectious to all he would meet, especially those who were blessed to call him son, nephew, husband, father, friend, teacher, director, composer or chef.
In 1986, Jeffry married his dear wife Nadeen, who shared his passion for our Lord, family, music, birding and gourmet food. Moving to Tucson in 1987, they raised two awesome young men, Grant, a burgeoning music composer and Tyler, who serves our country in the U.S. Army.
Jeffry earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the U of A, a Masters of Music from Wichita State Univ., and a Bachelor of Arts from Bethany College. Prior to his position of 19 years as Director of Worship Arts for Fountain of Life Lutheran Church, Jeffry inspired young musicians at Palo Verde Christian High School. He was also an accomplished tenor soloist and maintained a private voice studio.
Our community recently celebrated 25 years with Jeffry as the Music Director for the highly acclaimed Arizona Repertory Singers. Among his abundant accomplishments, Jeffry was the featured soloist for His Majesty King Carl Gustav of Sweden; Conductor of our annual community Messiah Sing-In; Artistic Director of Music for the Soul; choral clinician for regional high school choirs; and is one of the 2014 Tucson Musician Museum inductees.
Jeffry…your time with us was way too short but your impact was profound. You will always be in our hearts.
[In singing] “we create something which has an impact in more ways than we can imagine.”
Jeffry Jahn