Events


Practice, or regular singings are small groups that meet for a few hours and are fairly informal.  All-day singings may attract 40-100 people and last from around 10 am to 3 pm, with a break for potluck “dinner on the grounds.” Upcoming regional all-day singings include the Maidencreek All-Day Sacred Harp Singing (September 2 2023) and the Philly All-Day Shenandoah Harmony Singing (December 2 2023). The forty-first international Young People’s Convention will be hosted in Southeastern Pennsylvania for the first time on September 28-29, 2024.

We sponsored an All-Day Sacred Harp Singing on October 22, 2022. The Keystone Sacred Harp Convention, hosted in Philadelphia in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2020, and expected to be hosted in Philly in 2023, is a two-day event on the fourth Sunday in January and Saturday before that may be attended by 200+ people from all over the country and abroad. We also have a variety of house singings in singers’ homes.

Singings in Philadelphia are open to all. No experience is necessary and singing books are provided. Singers are encouraged to be up-to-date with covid vaccinations. Other requirements (testing, masking) apply to individual events. Please contact the hosts if you have questions.

Philadelphia Singing Calendar (click on event title for details). This calendar includes regular singings in and near Philadelphia, regional all-day events, and events in singers’ homes. Please see Pennsylvania Sacred Harp for information about regular and all-day events in PA that are outside the Philadelphia area.

COVID policy. Group singing has proven to be a very efficient way to spread airborne disease. You are welcome to wear a mask. Please stay home if you have any cold- or flu-like symptoms or have a close contact with COVID. Singers are required to provide contact information and encouraged to be up-to-date with vaccination, meaning that you have received a dose of the bivalent vaccine, and test before singing. If you develop COVID within a week of attending a singing, contact Ellie Knickman at eknickman@gmail.com or Rachel Hall at rachelwellshall@gmail.com. Your name will be confidential and others will be notified.