By Elizabeth Mullen

Alexandra Lee, who performs with the ChildrenSong of New Jersey choir, was given an assignment for the musical group’s performance at a special Jan. 21 worship service at Washington National Cathedral.

Before most of the songs, Lee, 15, was to slap a tuning fork against her thigh, hold it to her ear and discern the proper pitch for the singers to launch a cappella into the hymns that they had spent four months rehearsing at home in Haddonfield.

Even though a misreading of the tuning fork could set the group off to a disastrous path of projecting musical notes too high or too low, Lee was nonplussed.

“I just do it,” said Lee, who is from Delran, N.J.“It is not that hard for me.”

Lee carried out her task without a hitch as the 37 voices of teen-agers and near-teens in the choir performed with precision during a 20-minute recital that served as a worship prelude marking New Jersey State Day at the landmark cathedral.

“They did a good job, they were pretty well prepared,” choir director Polly Murray said. The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd, dean of Washington National Cathedral, said of the group’s offering: “It was wonderful.”

The New Jersey service drew 921 worshipers to the Cathedral’s 11 a.m. service, including about 200 pilgrims from New Jersey and natives of the state who now live in the Washington area. People from the Garden State played major roles including reading Scripture and delivering gifts to the altar during the service offertory.

The Cathedral, which has hosted state funerals and other events of national significance, focuses on an individual state one Sunday each month, inviting church and civic leaders and worshipers of all faiths to raise their communities in prayer.

See the original press release at the National Cathedral web site.