From Dvořák's Stabat Mater performed January, 2019 at Corpus Christi Church, Mineola, NY.
The Mineola Choral Society of Long Island, now celebrating our seventy-second concert season, continues to grow both in numbers and repertoire. Consisting of 80 amateur singers from many professions and walks of life, the Mineola Choral Society is still much the same as it was when we began, rehearsing Monday evenings in a friendly, congenial atmosphere and performing two major concerts each season. Over the years, our concerts have featured many classical masterworks from immortals such as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, Handel and Schubert, as well as the music of more modern composers including Berlin, Bernstein, Copland, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gershwin, Webber, Orff, Duruflé, Poulenc and many others.
The Spring Concert in May of 2019, The Music of the Masters: LET FREEDOM RING! continued our plea for liberty and brotherhood throughout the world. From the sublime a cappella opening of Max Janowski's Sim Shalom (Create Peace) to the the Finale of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Ode to Joy), which has become the musical banner for harmony and peace throughout the world, the concert was a highly inspirational declaration: LET FREEDOM RING! With a 40-piece orchestra and soprano Adrienne Patino Dunn, mezzo-soprano Janara Kellerman, tenor Joshua Benevento and bass Edward Hanlon, the chorus also presented excerpts from Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service) and selections from part 1 of George Frideric Handel’s Israel in Egypt. Following an interlude, a tender and emotional performance of Max Christian Friedrich Bruch’s Kol Nidrei featuring solo clarinetist David Gould and the orchestra, the chorus returned to perform "Preghiera" (Prayer) from Gioachino Rossini’s Mosé in Egitto, "Va, pensiero" from Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco and the finale, Ode to Joy.
Our Winter Concert for the 2019 season was held at Corpus Christi RC Church in Mineola where over 350 people came to hear the chorus and orchestra perform Antonín Dvořák's Stabat Mater, op. 58 with soloists Eileen Mackintosh, soprano, Janara Kellerman, mezzo-soprano, Joshua Benevento, tenor, and Edward Hanlon, bass. The sensitivity and intensity of the chorus and orchestra poignantly portrayed the grief and suffering of the Virgin Mary as she watched her son being tortured and crucified to his death. The concert began with “O Nata Lux,” the a cappella third movement of Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna.
At our 2018 Spring concert in May, under the auspices of Stephen C. Widom Cultural Arts at Temple Emanuel, Great Neck, the chorus, orchestra and soloists, along with a 20-voice children’s chorus from Grace Christian Academy in Merrick presented a Centenary Celebration of the Music of Leonard Bernstein to a standing room only audience of over 650. The music included Chichester Psalms and selections from Mass, On the Town and West Side Story with Adrienne Patino Dunn, Soprano, Abigail Wright, mezzo-soprano, David Dickey, countertenor, Benjamin Krumreig, tenor and Paul Holmes, bass.
In January of 2018, we kicked-off our 70th anniversary season with a sold out performance at St. Catherine of Sienna RC Church in Franklin Square. The concert opened with an a cappella performance of Anton Bruckner’s Locus Iste, followed by Gabriel Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and then three pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Laudate Pueri” and “Laudate Dominum” (with soloist Tanya Roberts) from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K. 339, and Ave Verum, K. 618. After an interlude that featured clarinetist David Gould and the orchestra in a sublime performance of second movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto K. 622, the chorus provided an intense and introspective performance of Mozart's Requiem, K 626. with soloists Tanya Roberts, soprano, Alison Taylor Cheeseman, mezzo-soprano, Benjamin Krumreig, tenor, and Edward Hanlon, bass.
Our 2017 Winter Concert which highlighted more than two centuries of works that relate to the illusive search for peace in the world. The program included Johann Sebastian Bach’s beautiful and timeless plea for peace from his Mass in B minor—“Dona Nobis Pacem,” the dramatic and transcendent music Giuseppe Verdi’s Stabat Mater, and Ralph Vaughan Williams cantata Dona Nobis Pacem, which combines a vivid reminder of the agony of war with a final hope for peace. Our SRO performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah at our 2017 Spring Concert conveyed with vivid presence, the power and intensity of his music, sometimes expressing deep tenderness and love and other times evoking images of violent fire, flood and whirlwind. The sold-out audience was transfixed by the seamless musical web woven by the orchestra, soloists and chorus. This was our first concert performed under the auspices of the Stephen C. Widom Cultural Arts Program at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck.
At our 2016 Winter Concert, the chorus, with 42-piece orchestra, organ and soloists, performed Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, sometimes referred to as an opera in liturgical robes. From the subdued bass entrance of “Requiem aeternam” through the warning cadence of the bass drum in the “Dies Irae” and the eternal hope of the “Lux aeternam,” to the entreating “Libera me,” this concert was certainly one of our most successful. An excerpt from the "Dies Irae" is on this page. Our Spring Concert opened with the music of Johannes Brahms, which included his opus 30 Lass Dich Nur Nichts Nicht Dauren (Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee) and selections from his Liebeslieder Walzer. We concluded the concert with the youthful energy and rhythmic drive of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Each year since 2001, we proudly present the Mineola Choral Society Peter J. Haller Vocal Music Excellence Award, a $1,000 scholarship, to a graduating Mineola High School student who has demonstrated talent in vocal performance and is planning to continue their musical education. The student is selected by the Music Department of Mineola High School. Our 2019 scholarship winner is Miguel Velasquez.