Join - NEIGHBORHOOD ROCKS

Ready to Sing Your Heart Out?

Come sing with us! No choir experience necessary, just the ability to sing in tune and a healthy sense of humor. Our community is always looking to share the joy with new members. ALL ages welcome - seriously.

If you've seen us in action and know that Neighborhood Rocks is right for you, register for our upcoming season by clicking the button below or join our mailing list to be in the know about important dates.

Join Us For a Rehearsal

If you'd like to try us on for size come join us for a rehearsal. You can get a feel for our musical style, our community spirit, and our fun-loving approach to choir singing.

Our Fall 2024 season will be in-person with an option to join on Zoom in case of illness. We rehearse at the Latvian Hall between Olmsted Park in Jamaica Plain and Brookline Village - email Krissy to schedule a visit!

Schedule a Visit

What Makes Us Rock

We're eclectic, just like you

Enjoy The Rolling Stones and James Taylor? Katy Perry and Ella Fitzgerald? Hamilton and Metallica? So do we!

Neighborhood Rocks sings awesome music in many genres - pop, rock, folk, jazz, and world music. If it's foot-tappin' or heart-string-pullin', we'll sing it!

You'll love performing our songs with a real rock band during our shows.

You can bring the whole family

Neighborhood Rocks is truly multi-generational and community oriented: we have families, singles, and couples; toddlers, kids, seniors, and everyone in between.

Children of all ages are welcome (babies love it when mom and dad are rockin' out) .

It's a great place to make friends!

No experience? No worries.

Shower singers, radio-hum-alongers, and bedtime crooners unite - if you can carry a tune, you can sing with Neighborhood Rocks.

We practice with sheet music and give lots of help along the way for folks who don't read it. You get to sing fun music and learn a new "language" - it's a win/win. Plus, you get practice tracks to belt to in the car so you can take our music with you all season long.

Season 18 (Fall 2024) Details

SCHEDULE
All rehearsals and events are at the Latvian Hall (58 Irving St. Brookline) unless noted.

Sunday rehearsals 4-6pm
- September 8th - December 8th
  - No rehearsal October 13th
Optional weeknight sectionals 7-9pm
- October 21st (Monday) - Tenors/Basses
- October 22nd (Tuesday) - Altos
- October 29th (Tuesday) - Sopranos
Optional Band Night 7-9pm (live jam with our awesome house band)
- November 2nd (Saturday)
Community Performances
- September 21st (Saturday) - Roslindale Porchfest, 5-6pm
- September 28th (Saturday) - Brookline Porchfest, 2:10-3:10pm
- Additional community performances throughout the season
Concert weekend
- December 14th (Saturday) 4-6pm : Dress rehearsal
- December 15th (Sunday) 4pm: Concert (arrive 3pm)

COMMITMENTS
We count on each member to be present and active in order to create a vibrant musical community. By registering for our chorus, you are actively committing to

arrive at rehearsals before 4pm;
attend the dress rehearsal and the concert;
attend as many additional community performances as possible;
assist in meeting the logistical needs of the choir as necessary;
bring your music binder and pencil (provided) to every rehearsal;
regularly review our member page for practice recordings and videos;
attend to your child during rehearsal as necessary.

KIDS @ NEIGHBORHOOD ROCKS
Singers of all ages are welcome at Neighborhood Rocks. Your kiddos are warmly invited to sing with us! Please note, however, that there are not concurrent activities for kids during rehearsal. Children are invited to participate alongside adults in chorus. Repertoire will include songs that are great for the whole family.

MEMBERSHIP DUES
We're committed to making choir financially accessible so we use a TIERED DUES SYSTEM. Please make a payment decision that feels best for you. Financial aid is available on a limited basis and payment plans are always an option.

Tier Three: $250 adults / $150 kids 3-17 y.o.
Tier Two: $200 adults / $125 kids 3-17 y.o.
Tier One: $150 adults / $100 kids 3-17 y.o.

NOTE: If you are a new member, please fill out the registration form but hold off on paying dues until you've visited us for a rehearsal or two to be sure we're a good match.

Meet Our Fearless Leaders

Krissy Skare & Michael Glashow

Krissy and Michael have been singing together since the first day they met in September 2003. Partners in life, music, and business, they created Neighborhood Rocks in 2016 with several years of community music-making in their back pockets.

With "infectious" joy and heartfelt communication, Michael and Krissy both feel a real calling to work with folks who want music in their everyday lives and who want a sense of belonging to a local community. Neighborhood Rocks is your extended family!

Krissy's story:

“I've been singing since I was a toddler. My Latvian grandmother would sing folk songs with me in the kitchen, waiting for the school bus, and swinging in the hammock. I loved to sing at Latvian Saturday school, where I learned that not only did I love music, but I was good at it! When I was nine I took a trip with my mother to Latvia and saw the world-famous Song & Dance Festival, where 20,000 singers gave a 6 hour choir concert in an outdoor stadium. I was transfixed, and hooked on music for life.

Fast forward through years of piano lessons, chorus, marching band, more chorus, orchestra, and the thrill of a lifetime singing at Carnegie Hall as a high school junior, and it was clear that I'd caught the Music Bug. More schooling followed (UMass Amherst, New England Conservatory, and Harvard Graduate School of Education), along with lots of teaching, conducting, and performing in the Greater Boston area, as well as in the Latvian-American community.

It’s with Neighborhood Rocks that this story comes full-circle: the real core of my love of music is community. Beyond the music notes on the page and the satisfaction of making art is a sense of energy and power. Power to form alliances, to bond with a stranger, to feel deeply and truly and resonantly all the emotions that pass through us in life. Singing feels like a chance to suspend life in midair and really take time and effort to feel it -- together. That’s why I love community choirs; it’s a rare and precious chance to join with neighbors and truly experience life.”

Michael's story:

“My music story is my life story, and it starts and ends with family, both mine and yours. I grew up in a house where music seemed to come out of the woodwork. My dad was a history teacher and drummer, my mom a dancer and somatic educator, and my two sisters and I all sang and played piano and other instruments. I grew up thinking it was completely normal for families of 5 to sing in harmony on car rides. As a little kid I used to come along to community theater and show choir rehearsals that my parents led, watching the action from the sidelines with my legs dangling off the edge of the stage.

Once I started singing in choirs, I never stopped. From middle school through college and as an adult, I’ve never NOT been in a singing group. I love the sense of community, the bond of making music together with just our voices. One of my early highlights, and the first time I got a glimpse of my future, was being chosen by my collegiate a cappella group to lead them as music director for 2 and a half years.

Since moving to Boston in 2005 I taught Music Together for 8 years (a program all about family members making music with each other) which inspired my interest in creating an environment for families to enjoy choir together. Neighborhood Rocks is a place where I can bring my passion for music and community together with your family’s love of singing and create magic!”

More Kind Words

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Krissy and Michael are truly amazing directors, and the choir is warm, open, engaging, and a lot of fun!

Kathe C.

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Krissy and Michael are awesome! They are so encouraging, enthusiastic, knowledgable and have wonderful senses of humor! I very much appreciate that they are willing to do so much work to make this possible for our community : )

Janice P.

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Michael and Krissy are genial and supportive while being serious teachers and directors.

Oren Bendavid-Val

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The community we have in our chorus is special - Michael and Krissy create such an incredibly warm and positive atmosphere for learning and singing together!