One World Community Choir in Santa Ynez (every other Sunday at 4:00)

Live class with Betsy Sansby & Al Dworsky

If you love to sing in the shower and are looking for a place to sing with your clothes on, there's a spot for you in the One World Community Choir. You'll learn a crazy mix of beautiful multi-part songs from all over the world: Scottish ballads, funky songs from Africa, hypnotic chants from India, and the best of American roots and popular music. Our motto is: If we love it, we'll sing it.

The choir is led by us--Betsy Sansby and Al Dworsky--and we conduct it with the same dramatic imperfection that we bring to our marriage. We led the choir in Minnesota for 10 years (the video clips here are of the Minnesota choir) and in Atwater Village in Los Angeles for 3 years. Now we're moving to Santa Ynez and starting a new incarnation of the choir in the place that will be our new home.

The atmosphere in class is welcoming and relaxed, but we work hard, so you'll never be bored. Everybody cares about the music, but nobody cares if you mess up. Mistakes--including our own--lighten the rehearsals with laughter. And in both previous versions of the choir, we became a community, with relationships that extended into our daily lives. Hanging out and having snacks or a glass of wine after each singing session helped make that happen: 

Unlike most choirs, who spend most of their time preparing for performances, we sing mainly for our own pleasure. Occasionally we'll sing at a community event or benefit, but these are rare, and we always invite our audience to sing along. The clips of us singing on this page are from our "friends and family" concert in October 2016.