Members of the Lawrence Women’s Chorale sing at their Sounds of Christmas concert Friday evening at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vt. The concert was the group’s last after its director and several other members have decided to leave.

Susan Martin plays the bells during the Sounds of Christmas concert Friday evening.

Members of the Lawrence Women’s Chorale sang their last notes together Friday evening in a concert that marked the end of the 22-year run of the group.

“We wanted to end, no pun intended, on a high note,” said director Sara Wentz.

Wentz has been directing the choir since its inception and said there wasn’t any one reason she and others involved decided to end the choir.

Sarah Merriman, president of the chorale, said both women, who met each other on their first day of college at Baker University, just decided it was time to wrap it up.

“It’s generally bittersweet,” Merriman said. “Several of our members have retired through the years. It’s going to be very sad. We’ve heard from many of our patrons. We had a pretty good run.”

Merriman said that over the years, the group has stayed small, and Wentz generally keeps it to 22 members or fewer, with women auditioning to join. The chorale has had almost 700 rehearsals and more than 50 performances throughout its run.

“We have a very loyal following,” Merriman said. “We’ve had the same crowd for 20 years.”

Judy Dailey, who sings the second alto part, has been singing in the choir since it started. She found that after she retired, she started traveling more often, which made it harder to attend the Sunday practices.

“I was getting to the point of thinking I would not sing too much longer, so this made the decision for me,” she said.

Merriman said she would miss seeing all the people who were in the choir during their two-hour-long Sunday rehearsals.

“I’m really going to miss creating music with that group,” she said. “A lot of friendships have been made.”

Wentz admits she’s sad about the choir’s end and knows that when January comes, she’ll miss seeing the women every Sunday for practice.

“I looked at the sports world for my example, how people decided to retire, then not retire, and they don’t perform as well,” Wentz said.

Now, without the choir, all 16 members of this year’s choir will have that time formerly used for rehearsals free, and some plan to turn to the sports world for entertainment. What will Merriman do with her free time?

“I guess watch football,” she said. “I missed almost every KU women’s basketball game this semester.”