Angela Gasior, Director

Simple text will not convey how stoked I am for every thing that will come when we make a Joyful Noise!  But I'll do my best to explain the vision and how it came. 

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My musical story started when I was quite young, curious about how kiddie pianos and plastic "saxophones" from the 1980s made sounds and how to organize those sounds.  I'd figure out the keys necessary to approximate nursery rhymes like Twinkle, Twinkle and Mary Had a Little Lamb.  It wasn't until fourth grade (which was 1994, but shh) that I had the chance to learn clarinet with Miss Grant and Mr Tegeder at my elementary school.  Both young music teachers themselves at the time, they inspired me to learn more, practice my instrument and decode the language of music.

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Yes, music IS a language - one that the WHOLE WORLD speaks the same!  As your director, one of my jobs is helping you decode the language of music.  Truth be told, I was not a great reader (music notes) when I was younger, but I got better as I did it more, as I exposed myself to more music and as I performed alongside other musicians.  So I already know you can do the same!  I will be here to help and so will your choir neighbors. 

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After going off to the University of Delaware for their pre-med program in 2003, I had a one of those "awakening" moments during the thick of performance season.  I was singing in a student-run a cappella group as well as the university's women's chorus that fall when that moment came.  I realized the white lab coat life wasn't for me, and that my calling would have me wearing "concert blacks."  Fast forward, I transferred to Rowan University where I earned my degrees in music and education in 2008.  Toward the very end of my education, many Rowan choral students (myself included) were singing for a large church in northeast Philly.  It was there that I heard the Word being preached and found myself moved to tears while up on the choir platform.  That spring, God moved in me and around me, showing his creative power in both music and nature (I was an avowed atheist until then).  Everything changed - all the sacred music I had performed for 4 years in college now had new meaning ... as did my life.  

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I spent the next decade teaching both in public schools, mainly serving in lower income communities of South Jersey.  Simultaneously, I continued running my own studio of piano, voice and woodwind students from home.  Exiting the public system in 2018 when my son was born, I continued teaching private lessons but also offered mommy-and-me style classes and choirs at co-ops and playgroups we attended.  This past fall, though, the need for a regional homeschool choir was made clear to me and it got me thinking ...  of Luke 19:40 - But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”  

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Paraphrasing: IF YOU DON'T SING, ACTUAL ROCKS WILL !!!

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So when you don't want a rock to beat you at a singing contest, you make a Joyful Noise!