Holiday Events

Bel Canto Chorale gears up for holiday show

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On any given Sunday, 42 amateur singers gather at the Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church to make beautiful music. This choir of angels, known as the Bel Canto Chorale which includes 15 sopranos, 15 altos, six tenors and six basses, sing major choral works.

The group will open its 2014-15 concert season next weekend with a holiday program featuring Haydn’s “Missa Cellensis in C Major” (a mass in honor of the Virgin Mary) and “The Many Moods of Christmas,” suites two and four by Robert Shaw.

“Our goal is to provide an exciting performance,” said Greg Mercer, Bel Canto’s artistic director. “We sing with emotion and not just technique. Oh, and we consistently sing in pitch.”

Bel Canto Chorale draws most of its members from many of the south Nassau County communities including Wantagh, but also from Suffolk County. Although members come from all walks of life, they have one thing in common — a love of music.

Richard McMillan may be an engineer by day, but he is a singer by night. McMillan, who has lived in Wantagh for 50 years and worked for Grumman, has been singing with Bel Canto for 30 years. He became involved with Bel Canto after the choir director at Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church introduced him to Kirk M. Dunklee, the founder and then artistic director of Bel Canto Chorale. “Although I started my music career as a bassoon player, I discovered singing,” he said. “I love it.”

McMillan, who sings baritone, at 92 is the oldest member of Bel Canto, but not its longest standing member.

That honor goes to Richard Harrington, of Freeport, a bass, who has been with Bel Canto for almost 35 years and was also approached by Dunklee, then the choral director at Freeport High School, to sing. “I went along even though I’m not that good,” Harrington said. “I sit between two really excellent bass singers.”

Bel Canto has become a family affair for the Harringtons. In addition to Richard, his wife Ann, an alto, and daughter, Katherine Vliet, also an alto, sing.

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