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Mostly Cloudy Mineola Choral Society's ‘Our Prayer for Peace’
Freeporters, Baldwinites participate in first in-person concert in over two years
On Sunday, May 1, the Mineola Choral Society will return to concert performance after a two-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The program theme is “Our Prayer for Peace.” It will feature the world premiere of “Lamentations” by Choral Society Director Thomas W. Jones, move into Mozart's poignant “Requiem,” and conclude with selections from Handel's joyful “Messiah.”
Two Freeport residents, Ellen Kelly and Mary Ellen Kahn, and three Baldwin residents, Mary Schmid, Phyllis Shakespeare, and Margot DiPaola, will be among the performers.
“I’m in the choir because I love to sing,” said Mary Ellen Kahn, “and I also love what you’d call great music, and I feel that we do really high-caliber music.”
The composers range from Leonard Bernstein to George Frideric Handel to Giuseppi Verdi. Though the music is quite challenging, Kahn said that chorus conductor Thomas Jones is both a fine conductor and a gifted teacher.
“He has the way of coaxing the best out of his group,” Kahn said. “It’s such a joy to get to the point where we all work hard on a piece and then get to perform it, and we know that we’ve done a good job. He helps us get there.”
Kahn has been a Freeport resident for over 40 years. She once sang with the Freeport Chorale. She has sung with the Mineola Choral Society for over 10 years.
“I am an alto, as is Ellen [Kelly],” Kahn said. “And the other three women, Phyllis, Mary, and Margot, are also altos. ... We met in the babysitting club years ago in Freeport, where we had a co-op babysitting thing going on, so that was kind of fun.”
The concert will take place at 3:00 p.m.at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church, 155 Garfield Avenue, Mineola, and will feature soloists Adrienne Patino Dunn, Ned Hanlon, Janara Kellerman, Bruce Westervelt and the Orchestra of the Society.
The Mineola Choral Society, now in its 74th concert season, is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance of choral music. It draws membership from more than 35 Long Island communities and New York City.
The concert is made possible, in part, with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, administered by the Huntington Arts Council, Inc.
Tickets for the May 1 concert are $20 each for seniors, students and by advance sale until April 21, $25 thereafter. Proof of Covid vaccination is required for attendance. For further information about advance sale tickets for this concert and the Mineola Choral Society, visit www.mineolachoralsociety.org or call (516) 294-1175.
