Music, Gettysburg! will present “Elsie Singmaster: One Author, Two Locations” on Sunday, July 12, at 6 p.m. at the chapel of United Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg. The free benefit concert will raise funds for a documentary film about author Elsie Singmaster Lewars, with all donations supporting the production.
One of America’s best-known writers during the first half of the 20th century, Singmaster was a prolific novelist and short-story writer whose work explored Pennsylvania German life, the Civil War, and American history. A longtime Gettysburg resident, she also helped establish the Adams County Library System and the Adams County Chapter of the Red Cross while contributing to the growth of Gettysburg Seminary, where her father served as president.
The documentary is being produced by Gettysburg filmmakers Jake Boritt and Leah Bordatto and is based on decades of research by scholar Susan Hill. Supported by the Macungie PA Historical Society and the Adams County Historical Society, the film will be shot in Gettysburg and Macungie, featuring locations where Singmaster lived as well as selections from her writings.
The concert will take place across the street from the Seminary Ridge home where Singmaster lived for most of her adult life. The program will combine narration, readings from her letters and published works, and music inspired by her life and legacy. Performers include Wayne Hill, Susan Hochmiller, Ryan Kozack, Jonathan Noel, and an ensemble of young Adams County singers.
More information is available at musicgettysburg.org or by emailing info@musicgettysburg.org.