In its 36th season, the Lincoln Festival Chorus is currently in rehearsal for two performances in August.

Under the direction of semi-retired Bowdoin College Professor Tony Antolini and accompanist Sean Fleming, the 50-plus chorus members will perform at the Opera House at Boothbay Harbor on Friday, August 12 and at the Bowdoin College Chapel on Sunday, August 14, both at 7:30 p.m.

Antolini, from Cushing, is now in his fifth year leading the group. He took over from Robert Russell, who directed the chorus for 18 years. Fleming has worked with the chorus for 23 years.

Longtime member Carol Cragin said members come from as far as Brunswick and Camden.

“We recruit actively. It is a family,” said Cragin at the group’s second rehearsal on Monday, June 20 at St. Columba’s Church in Boothbay Harbor.

LFC chairman Penny Kerns said that there is still sheet music available for additional singers through July 7. About half of the members are summer residents, some of whom have yet to arrive, she said. There are no auditions.

“I read an article in the Boothbay Register. I said, ‘Let’s give it a try.’ I am still here,” said Kerns.

The chorus will be joined by singers Suzanne Nance, John David Adams and the DaPonte String Quartet in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Dona nobis pacem.” The program will include Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia.”

The chorus was begun in 1980 by Capt. Marion Dash and Malama Robbins, who believed that choral music should come to Boothbay Harbor, according  to Cragin.

For more information, visit www.LincolnArtsFestival.net, or call 633-3913.