At our full strength, we have 15-17 choir members in a parish of approx. 500 families.

I have worked really hard to get numbers high, and audition (very light audition) two out of three choirs.

27 Choir
25 Choristers
10 new Spanish Choir (started rehearsing this month)

Attendance is usually quite good. Out pastor asks for 75% minimum, and almost everyone is well above that mark.

I think one must be very, very cautious about this kind of numbers game. Many factors impact choir attendance - culture base of the congregation, age of the congregation (which cuts both ways; it can be a "graying" group, or in a suburban parish many of the young families with children can't afford one more night of babysitting, and often both parents work which makes evening time important for the children), overall history of music in the parish and how well it was supported (were the music director/organists well-compensated? were choir rehearsals well-run? was regular attendance at rehearsals required? did the director have a clue?), the value placed on music and its roll in the liturgy (entertainment vs. glorification of God and sanctification of the Faithful).

It can be dis-spiriting and counterproductive to place a random minimum number on a choir as a means of evaluating the job performance of the director. I've been there, and had it pulled on me, and it's a wicked and short-sighted thing on the part of the Pastor or some "committee" to do.

This is not to say that the charism, talent and social skills of the director aren't reflected in the overall size of the choir. I know of one very highly successful program where the director has been there for years and has worked hard to build a solid program. On the other hand, it is often those who are not in the choir, especially if the choir and its director are of a "traditional" or "reform of the reform" mindset, who will accuse the director of being "arrogant" or having "unreasonably standards" and thus is "elitist" or "not pastoral." They will go on to suggest to the Pastor that "if we just got rid of the director, the choir would get bigger." Maybe yes, maybe no. YMMV, as they say. If the choir is small but mighty, and serves the liturgy by singing reverent and appropriate music with a view to the glorification of God and the sanctification of the Faithful rather than the entertainment of the congregation, then the measure of the choir is, and should be, the quality of sound rather than the quantity of members. It is always possible to have a very large choir that sings the choral octavo arrangements of the usual sacro-pop nonsense found in the "Big Three" hymnals. While the sound can be quite impressive, the music is hardly ever challenging, let alone artistic. I am always suspicious of churches that tout large choirs that cannot sing any of the basic repertoire of the Catholic Church (there's no reason why a mixed adult choir of modest musical skill cannot master Bruckner's Locus iste with proper training), and whose director has an "all God's critters got a place in the choir" mentality. "We're making a joyful noise to the Lord, after all" they say, as they scream their brains out on some horrid arrangement of "City of God", calling it a successful church music program.

On the other hand, if the director clearly doesn't know what they are doing, lords their authority over others, is inflexible, impatient and condescending or uncooperative, or takes advantage of the time and patience of the members of the choir (volunteers, that is), then obviously the choir will shrink or remain static. It's not unusual even in a large congregation to have the "usual suspects" who do it all, and often these "usual suspects" will, like feral cats, spray their territory and make the experience of being a new volunteer to their circle unpleasant and unwelcoming.

Ultimately, this "numbers game" over how many are in your choir is an exercise in futility. The Church isn't a corporation, the parishioners aren't "stockholders with voting rights", it's not even in the "customer service industry" and the number of "happy customers" (fannies in the pews) isn't really a fair measure of whether or not something is going well.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, I have 2 men in my schola and about 10 regulars who will sing with the choir when it forms up to sing for Christmas Eve and Holy Week/Easter services. The ones who dropped out didn't like the fact that I established a regular rehearsal schedule that they couldn't talk me into changing so that it better fit their evening TV viewing schedule, and others left because I dared to expect regular attendance at rehearsals or, God forbid and heaven forfend, I actually tried to teach them how to sing the notes on the page, and not the entirely improvised "harmonies" they remembered singing for years under previous directors. The parish is about 1,500 families in an old neighborhood that is dying and the culture base is almost non-existent. The parish school was closed 2 years ago, and had virtually no music program to speak of.

The current choir fluctuates between 0 (not common) and 6 (also not common). Only two of those will attend choir practice.

The last church had a maximum choir of eleven (managed to get that for Christmas) but usually only had one cantor per Mass. That church had maybe 400 families, although I think active families were down to something like 200.

We're at 18 fairly steady members and holding - 6s, 4a, 4t, and 4b. There are also 3 or 4 singers that flit around the edges of the choir but can't (or won't) commit for a whole season. They come and go.

I think a parish should strive to have 10% of its parishioners involved in some way in the music program (from children's choirs to folding music programs or licking envelopes for music donation mailers).

That being said, I'll take a few quality, dedicated folks over a giant group of undedicated folks who can't sing.

And just because you're striving for that 10% doesn't mean you ever need to get there. It's just a goal you talk about and occasionally think about.

The Parish Missa Cantata choir averages 12, with additional singers for special occasions.
The Spanish Coro varies from 12-20. The Anima Christi Choir, which sings at 8:00 PM
varies from 12-20 depending on the time of the year. The Coro & Anima Christi Choirs rehearse before their masses. The Parish Schola practices 2 hours on Thursday evening, with a 45 minute warm-up on Sunday before the 10:00 AM mass. The Children's Choir, which sings weekly for the school mass & periodically for a Sunday or feast day mass, has 35 members and rehearses for 50 minutes after school on Tuesday.

I have a group of 20 teens. Just keep in mind that quantity doesn't always guarantee quality.

When I first got to my present position (I'm the organist, not director), we had about 40-45 in the choir. That was after about 15 years of solid development from a starting point of 6. As that director neared retirement, and had interfering priorities, it dropped by about 10. With the new director coming about 5 months ago, there were some who were not interested in change, so the numbers fluctuated a bit and have stabilized between 20-25. Our parish has 900 registered families, with about 1/3 being particularly active, and average weekly attendance across 4 masses around 1,000.

To be honest, those 20-25 that are left are making a better sound than the 45 ever did...

Last rehearsal S1S2ATB numbers were 3-3-2-2-2. Above 14 my bad cop persona shows up from time to time, but 'doable' for us is less a matter of cat-herding than a standing room issue: with 17 we had a lot of competition from the Easter lilies this year.

Saint Peter's in Columbia, South Carolina has approximately 1000 families from something like 20 zip codes: we're downtown and don't really have any parochial boundaries. We have an auditioned polyphonic choir of 30 on the books (18 women and 12 men on a good year), average 22 (includes 5 choral scholar positions but may be augmented if needed). Getting and keeping new recruits is hard. But the ones we keep are golden, and the core is very committed. I routinely hear about 10 prospective volunteers a year and might take 3 or 4, based on their hearing and reference check about their participation with previous choral programs. The reason for the reference check is that I got tired of losing $150 worth of music when new recruits would show up to their first few rehearsals and, without notice, walk out with their binders, never to be seen again. I also realized that most prospective choristers old enough to be raising children whose most recent choral experience was in grade school or high school really don't have the choir-bug. You're either doing it, or you're not: people that are serious choral musicians are typically currently singing in a choir doing serious music as a matter of being a complete person. That's just how it is.

Our Sunday Evening contemporary Choir of 16 volunteers plus a leader/guitarist and his partner/pianist. This is a record number for them and I'm really pleased. This director doesn't have a placement hearing or anything, but if things aren't working well, people have a way of weeding themselves out.

Parish School of 110 students pre K4 - 6th grade: 22 auditioned choristers that each receive $100 in scholarship funds per year.

I am a big believer in intentional ministry, at least for our community. I think a "y'all come sing" mentality wouldn't increase our numbers dramatically and the intentionality of what we do and who we are would cease to be. Exactly what that intentionally is...I wish I could say. :) But it's intentional!

One of our parishioners reminded me that there was a time when the word "elite" didn't have a negative connotation. And English is her fourth language (Dutch, German, and French being her first three: she's Belgian). It is to our detriment that we cower away from excellence as Americans and as Catholics.

We have about 35, including two choral scholars (T and B). As the group keeps improving, I'm getting more skilled people to join and the commitment is good. Out of this group I have a schola of about 12 which sings a lot of unaccompanied music. Our children's program has about 30. We're in the process of rebuilding, as there were some real discipline issues before I arrived three yearsa ago and expectations are now very different.

I agree that the "y'all come sing" approach doesn't work. I don't put notices in the bulletin. I approach people directly, particularly if I've heard them singing in the congregation, or I happen to know that they have sung in choirs in the past. I also have trusted choir members who "spy" for me out in the congregation during the Summer months and report if they've heard any promising new voices.

I started out 5 yeas ago with 25-30. About 3 felt they should dictate to me how the music will go - and they only wanted to sing songs they had learned by previous directors. Then I lost a few when they found out they could not sing in the praise service if they were not in choir for Christmas and Holy Week/Easter. Then some move in and out - very big college community and lots of internships going on. Finally, I lost about 6 due to old age and their voice just wasn't making it anymore... they took themselves out.

This past season, (Fall2013) I started out with 16 on the books. We average about 6-8 singers per week. At christmas concert 2 weeks ago - we had 15 of my own singers - plus the local high school a cappella group join us (on scholarship). I will tell you, it is not always the same directing up to 8 as it is directing up to 20 but - the level of music reading has gotten much better.

We average about 300 in worship per weekend - the choir sings only the Heritage (liturgical) service and that averages around 140 per week. When I came here a few years ago - the liturgy service was basically liturgy on the 1st Sunday of the month and a traditional format (hymns only) the other Sundays. They had no organ - and only a piano. We now have an organ, do liturgy 2 times per month - and then for all Advent and Lent services we do our Evening Prayer or Vesper service. They also only averaged about 90 in worship at 1st service when I first came. So, we have had some large changes. I'd still like to have a 20 voice choir - but only if they all read music well. I think I would rather be small and have a great sound so that we communicate/minister through music rather than large, splattered big church rock choir that amazed people (either good or bad amazement). It makes finding music for no tenors, 3 baritones, and 1 basso profundo, 1 maybe 2 altos and 2-3 2nd sopranos.... CHALLENGING........... Sadly, we have a pianist who does not take to the organ well - I am not an accompanist at all, and I love the music of St. James Music Press - especially some of their unison/2part arrangements that work with my weird choir mix. But the piano does not always sound best with that music - Oh well - some day. And I WOULD LOVE to do Locust Iste by Bruckner. I just need a few tenors and a higher soprano. Perhaps I can pay some high school students a scholarship to help us out.

Also - I run the praise service. You know that watered down - pop MTV experience that defies church history in every sense..... yeah... that one. I have 3 singers in there (all are required to do Christ/Easter with the choir and the band. I am lucky, I have 3 string players, Violin, Viola, Cello, French Horn (2), Trombone (2), Trumpet (3) and a flute and clarinet player... and a 2 octave bell choir - so we don't have to sing all the time - I have other things going on. Starting this spring, because of vocal numbers, I am using more hymn arrangements where the choir learns 1 verse and the rest is people singing together. This will change what we do and help us out a lot. So, it is not all bad.

We have 5 - 3S, 1A, and me Tenor. Its a challenge but sometimes we really nail it and it is well worth it.
Each Mass has its own choir. My 8am Sunday choir is probably the only one with a consistent group (always there).
For feasts (Christmas, Triduum) some members of various choirs come together to sing and I'll have anywhere from 10 - 25 people.
This is also a challenge with some not liking chant so they either fight me on it and leave, or complain until I kick them out.
Oh, and we have snow birds from the mid West and Canada, who have great voices but come and go.

S-5/6
A-6/7
T-3/4
B 3/4
All sight read, round and square. See my blog, "I Love my choir!"
We don't rehearse the SEP, the SCG or hymns in SATB. We're the congregation.
I have to admit we must rehearse Richard's Choral Communio's, they so fine!
We didn't even rehearse the "Spanish" Gaudete until Sunday AM.
Lest you think I'm boasting, I'm not. I'm advocating being in service to the same parish, and ergo the same choristers for 21 years. And new ones will join as older ones retire.
We're not huge, but we're sure proficient. They're all family, including their spouses and kids.

S - 4 (two of whom sometimes sing alto when needed)
A - 1.5 (my wife, and a fantastic alto who travels too much)
T - 2.5 (me, my accompanist, a great tenor who is sick too often)
B - 1.25-ish (regular is a guy who was formerly a tenor, but in his dotage has fallen in to Baritone range; occasionally another guy who is a solid Bass but who does 100 things at the parish and usually feels too busy/stressed to sing)

We rehearse service music at season changes, but mostly just the "Choral Anthem" (Offertory) for each week and usually do a quick once-thru on any new congregational music. Other than that, we don't tend to rehearse hymns.

Everyone reads very well for pitches. Our big problem is rhythm. So we do almost exclusively homophonic texture- with contrapuntal polyphony no more than a few times a year.

We have between 6 and 12 depending on the weekend. We now combine with our two other clustered parishes for major feast days (Christmas Eve and Triduum) which usually results in about 30.

All of my choir members are average - or below. sigh!