WOMEN'S CHORUS FINDS NEW PLACE TO HARMONIZE.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

After a few weeks of hand-wringing and anxiety, the women of the Agoura Hills Harmony Chorus have found a home at Ladera Elementary School in Thousand Oaks for their weekly rehearsals - and their unwieldy risers.

After more than three years of using Aspen Elementary in Thousand Oaks for rehearsals, the singers were told the school no longer had enough space to store their risers - the four-level, fold-out metal steps on which the members stand to get optimal sound while singing.

``The risers are the big problem,'' said Linda Robertson, an Agoura Hills resident and a tenor with the chorus since 1995. ``We have to store them where we rehearse. Although they fold up, they still take up quite a bit of room.

``Sometimes the schools get overburdened and need the storage space themselves. You hate to think you're taking up space they need.''

The Agoura Hills Harmony Chorus attracts members from throughout Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley. Founded in 1991, the group is affiliated with Sweet Adelines International, a worldwide women's chorus that has brought barbershop-style, four-part harmony around the world.

The singers got offers from several local schools and community centers and actually held a rehearsal at Fantasy Island, a catering facility in the mountains behind Agoura Hills that rents to private parties.

``It was fantastic, dazzling. It was all lit up,'' said Mary Barns, a Simi Valley resident who joined the chorus four years ago with her daughter, Phyllis.

``But it was like party time, and we couldn't help laughing and carrying on. We needed a place where we could really focus.''

So Jane Meade and Marjorie Grabe, a school librarian and fourth-grade teacher, respectively, at Ladera Elementary, took their problem to Principal Neil Snyder. He welcomed the chorus, which will start rehearsing in the school auditorium Sept. 23.

News of the new practice hall came just as the group began practicing fresh arrangements of songs for its annual December show.

``It certainly relieves a lot of stress for everybody who was trying to get a new place. The new place is great. We'll have lots of nooks to use for practice sessions. We'll have access to a teachers lounge and to a few classrooms,'' said Robertson, adding that members usually break up into small practice groups in separate rooms to review the different parts in the harmony of a new song.

``At the old place, groups would have to practice in the men's bathroom, the women's bathroom and the kitchen,'' she said.