Petaluma Women's Chorus

Petaluma Women's Chorus Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Petaluma Women's Chorus, Nonprofit Organization, 199 Petaluma Blvd N, Petaluma, CA.

The Petaluma Women's Chorus brings together women with a broad range of musical experience and skill to learn and perform music that showcases the beauty and strength of women’s voices singing as one.

Our amazing Director, Sadie Sonntag! She brings talent, expertise, passion, and creativity to our group. We are lucky to...
05/11/2026

Our amazing Director, Sadie Sonntag! She brings talent, expertise, passion, and creativity to our group. We are lucky to have her.

Look at these gorgeous singers, all ready for their Be the Light Spring Choral Concert. Sending big love out to everyone...
05/06/2026

Look at these gorgeous singers, all ready for their Be the Light Spring Choral Concert. Sending big love out to everyone who came to experience the joy of singing this past Saturday.

05/03/2026

Thank you to our friends, family, and fans for coming out yesterday afternoon for our Be the Light Spring Choral Concert!

We felt so much joy singing for you and we hope that our collective song brought light to your lives.

If you'd like to join the Petaluma Women's Chorus, email us at info (at) petalumawomenshorus.org. Rehearsals for our fall/winter season begin on August 25th! Learn more at petalumawomenschorus.org.

Meet our Accompanist, Lorelei (Lori) Sikorski! She can do anything on the piano. Lori majored in music at the University...
04/29/2026

Meet our Accompanist, Lorelei (Lori) Sikorski! She can do anything on the piano. Lori majored in music at the University of Southern Colorado. Piano has been her dominant instrument since childhood, and she also dabbles in the flute. She has been accompanying choirs since middle school, and continues to do so. She has also played for musical theater productions. In addition, she is employed as a church pianist at St. John's United Methodist Church in Rohnert Park.

We asked Lori a few questions and here's what she shared:

Q: What do you love about playing the piano?
A: "The tactical experience of making music. It is a way to express myself and the feeling for music I have in my soul."

Q: What do you love about being an accompanist?
A: "It is a thrilling experience to be a part of an ensemble of musicians. It is hard work to maintain a skill level, which can be very isolating. Making music with others is a reward for that work."

Q: When did you began playing piano and what was your musical journey like?
A: "My grandmother had a piano, and I was fascinated with it starting around age 5. She encouraged my interest, but there was no consistent instruction--we lived fairly far apart. I didn't start taking lessons until I was almost 11, after my grandmother bought a piano for me. I was quite motivated during the early stages of taking lessons. I wish that enthusiasm continued at that level, but life can be a big distraction. I maintained a decent level of skill throughout high school but under-applied myself. I had a great piano teacher, but her approach to motivation was more fear-based than praise-based, which did not work well for me. I started college as a music major at the strong urging and direction of my piano teacher. During college I reached some pretty high peaks as a pianist, but, again, distractions happened. Having had no concrete plans about where to go with music after college, I worked in many different non-musical jobs. I still practiced as much as I could, played in churches I attended, and participated in various other musical activities, but it was pretty sporadic. After recently retiring from a full-time job, I have gradually taken on more piano-related endeavors, including the PWC."

Q: What do you love about the Petaluma Women's Chorus?
A "The level of musical competency and talent. It is an honor to accompany them and to work with Sadie, our excellent director. It is also a community I appreciate being a part of."

Meet our Director! Sadie Sonntag is a force to be reckoned with. She brings her passion for music, care for community, a...
04/28/2026

Meet our Director! Sadie Sonntag is a force to be reckoned with. She brings her passion for music, care for community, and joy for singing to our group and you! Along with her expertise and professionalism, she brings a great dose of humor and playfulness in her approach to directing. She is currently a music teacher for Petaluma School District and has served as music teacher for Harmony Elementary School District, and choral director for Casa Grande High School, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Santa Rosa, Live Oak Charter School, First United Methodist Church, Petaluma Children’s Chorus, and El Molino High School.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Voice from Sonoma State University after earning an Associate of Arts degree from Santa Rosa Junior College.

We are so grateful to have her as our musical and creative Director!

Learn more about Sadie at https://www.sadiesonntag.com/home

Let's learn about "Take This Gift," another beautiful song we'll be singing for you this Saturday Composed and co-writte...
04/28/2026

Let's learn about "Take This Gift," another beautiful song we'll be singing for you this Saturday Composed and co-written by Dr. Tracy Wong and Cheri Chai!

As shared by Dr. Wong on her website:

This optimistic piece is characterized by catchy, singable melodies and a syncopated rhythmic drive in the vocal and piano writing. The text was co-written by the composer and the vocal percussionist Cherie Chai, and celebrates the life-long relationships created and nurtured within the choral community.

It is beautifully suited as a joyous “parting gift” for choirs commemorating anniversaries, ending of seasons, graduations, or farewells, this piece honours the priceless gift of shared choral experiences.

It has been said that one finds life-long friends in choir. I am fortunate that this is true for me. One of these friends is Cherie Chai, a Singaporean choral conductor, arranger, vocal & instrumental percussionist, audio engineer, and singer I met through the Asia Pacific Youth Choir (International Federation for Choral Music) in 2011. We have since collaborated (and toured!) on a variety of choral projects, and this composition marks our first collaboration as lyricists. Thus, it is no surprise that the text for “Take This Gift” is meaningful to us, too.

The work features a particular light-hearted vocal play motif (“la la li la lay”) that is usually heard in “Canggung”, a Malay folk song. Together with hints of modal scales and supported by percussion, the piece merges folkloric elements with contemporary choral sounds.

Take This Gift was commissioned by Fort Wayne Children’s Choir to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the choral organization. It was an honour to be a part of this celebration!

– Tracy Wong, June 2023

Learn more and explore the amazing work of Dr. Tracy Wong at https://tracywongmusic.com/downloads/take-this-gift/

Sometimes we get together to appreciate our feathered friends who provide nature's chorus every spring! Earlier this mon...
04/27/2026

Sometimes we get together to appreciate our feathered friends who provide nature's chorus every spring! Earlier this month you may have see us wandering Petaluma Downtown with binoculars and spotting scope in tow. We began the walk with a singing Anna's Hummingbird at Helen Putnam Plaza Park and ended with the melody of a Song Sparrow solo on the edge of the Petaluma Slough near Ayawaska. Did you know that it's usually male birds that do the singing?

Be prepared to float off into the waves of sound this coming Saturday at our Spring Concert Be the Light Spring Choral C...
04/27/2026

Be prepared to float off into the waves of sound this coming Saturday at our Spring Concert Be the Light Spring Choral Concert as we sing Enya's beautiful Caribbean Blue. One of our amazing singers, Lauren Urbais, researched a bit about the song and shares that Caribbean Blue is a dreamy, metaphorical song about escaping reality through imagination, belief, and the transformative power of dreams. Released in 1991, the song uses mythical references to Greek wind gods (Afer Ventus, Eurus, Boreas, and Zephyr) to evoke a serene personal sanctuary to symbolize the freedom of the mind to create its own journey. In summary, “Caribbean Blue” is a musical “hug for the soul” designed to provide peace and hope, guiding listeners to a place of inner strength and calm in times of difficulty.

For extra fun, revisit this whimsical, delightful music video: https://youtu.be/Jl8iYAo90pE?si=jSz6B0mZIxS2y6Bg

Let’s have a F***y Hensel Mendelssohn moment! In choosing the songs we sing, our Creative Director Sadie Sonntag and Boa...
04/04/2026

Let’s have a F***y Hensel Mendelssohn moment!

In choosing the songs we sing, our Creative Director Sadie Sonntag and Board members consider many aspects and one of them is representation of women in the music itself!

One of our Spring concert songs, "Wandl’ ich in dem Wald des Abens" (Walking in the wood at evening) was composed by F***y Hensel Mendelssohn, a woman who lived from November 14, 1805 to May 14, 1847. As you can imagine, this was not a welcoming time for women composers. In fact, female representation is still relatively low.

According to a report produced by Donne - Women in Music, which examined the repertoire of 111 orchestras across 30 countries for the 2023-2024 season, only 7.5% of works were composed by women. Of these, 5.8% were composed by white women, and works by women from the global majority accounted for just 1.6%.

We’re proud and excited to elevate and perform F***y’s work in our upcoming concert on May 2nd (Be the Light Spring Choral Concert) and we encourage you to learn more about this fierce woman composer in a beautifully produced 10-minute segment on her:

The obstacles F***y Mendelssohn had to face to be a composer | The story of women composers, https://youtu.be/QYiJNDRVX1w?si=Xsmk8gVzLiBnB1SS

You can also hear another of her pieces in the upcoming Sonoma County Philharmonic concert on April 18th and 19th: https://www.socophil.org/

public domain images of F***y by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim and F***y's later husband, Wilhelm Hensel

Donne - Women in Music

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199 Petaluma Blvd N
Petaluma, CA
94952

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