How Can We Keep From Singing…

First United Methodist Church
66 Chestnut Street
Oneonta, NY

Friday, April 29th at 7 pm,
Saturday, April 30 at 7 pm


Join us as we emerge from the cloud of Covid and raise our voices to celebrate our fifty years of making music.

Dorothy Caswell

Dorothy Caswell
(12/18/1938 – 9/12/2020)

Our featured work, Mozart’s Requiem, was commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg in  1791 to commemorate the passing of his wife. Those familiar with the film and play “Amadeus” will know that Mozart was unable to finish the Requiem before he died.  Mozart’s widow asssigned the completion of the work to  Franz Xaver Süssmayr , who delivered the commission a year later.  There have been other completions of the work, but it is the Süssmayr version we will perform. Soloists soprano Cynthia Donaldson, alto Elijah McCormack, tenor Steven Nanni,  and bass-baritone David Kolb, will join us in the performance of the Requiem.

Paul E. Scheele
(4/12/1934 – 10/29/2021)

Our performance will be dedicated to the memory of Dorothy Caswell and Paul Sheele, who joined with others 52 years ago to form what would become the Catskill Choral Society and who sang with us for many years thereafter. Their love of music and their dedication to our organization  for over 50 years continues to inspire us.

In addition to the Mozart we will perform  some shorter works in other musical styles that help explain why we love to sing.

(NOTE: Thomas Wolf will be singing tenor as Mr Nanni has withdrawn due to illness.)

This concert is made possible with public funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant 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, and administered by The Earlville Opera House.