MDC Kendall’s Chorus Reunion Ends in Tearful Goodbye
By Vanessa A. Alvarez, The Miami Herald
May 11–The Miami Dade College Community Chorus celebrated its 25th anniversary by performing a reunion concert at the Riverside Baptist Church last weekend.
Moved by the music, what people did not expect was that it was also the chorus’ last performance under its founder and director, Eugene Greco.
“When I heard about the concert, I really wanted to be a part of it and not just for singing’s sake, but you build relationships,” said Stephen Whang, 50, a past member of the chorus who now lives in Paraguay.
“It was fun,” Whang said. “There’s something in the chemistry of that. It’s singing in a choir with people that you’ve gone through things with.”
Like a number of the 50 singers who performed, Whang was one of the returning singers who sang that afternoon. He joined the chorus in 2003 when he went back to school to finish an undergraduate degree he first began at Florida State University years earlier. The chorus was something he pursued as a credit student and continued for four years.
“The community choir aspect is made up of those who come back every time. We’ve become a family,” said Whang, currently a music teacher who directs three choirs in Paraguay.
That is literal for Janet Mantecon, 24, who married fellow chorus singer, Alfredo Presa, last summer.
“Love builds bridges, but love and music built a bridge between us,” said Mantecon, who teaches science to special needs’ children at South Miami Middle School. She is also a long-time member who began her five-year stint with the choir as a credit student while she pursued her associate’s degree at MDC.
“Music is such a big part of our lives, our love and our marriage,” said Mantecon, who first became close to Presa during a field trip the chorus took to Greco’s hometown of Schenectady, N.Y., in the winter of 2003.
Mantecon said one night the group went to a karaoke bar at the lobby of their hotel and while there, Presa and she decided to do a duet to the 1981 Lionel Richie song Endless Love. Almost four years later, that became their wedding song.
Mantecon also said the chorus celebrated their union by singing at their wedding ceremony and described Greco as her rock.
“It’s sad that he’s not going to headline it anymore because he’s just so great,” Mantecon said. “He always believed in me, even when I didn’t. He always pushed me. He truly believes in the beauty of music.
“The last note that we sang, I was crying . . . I could barely finish the note. It was bittersweet for me.”
Throughout its 25 years, the chorus — which has performed at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II and at Carnegie Hall — has had 609 members who have also sang at local churches. But only one person other than Greco has participated for the entire quarter of a century: Rosemary Camus, 74, who only missed one concert — because she had a heart attack.
Camus, who said she sang since she was a little girl and stopped singing after high school, credited the choir under the direction of Greco with finding her voice again.
She describes her years in the choir as a dream come true and as memories that she will never forget — though she will retire along with Greco.
“I enjoyed every minute of it,” Camus said. “The concert was wonderful but saying good-bye broke my heart. If he’s gone, I’m gone, too. . . . I’m gonna sit back and watch the others sing. Now, If Gene were ever going to come back that would be different for me.”
The chorus performed 15 numbers accompanied by an orchestra during the May 4 concert, about a third of the songs they’ve performed throughout the years. Greco described the line-up as a “potpourri” because they focused on giving the audience of 130 a little taste of the different things they had done.
The group of 50, wearing black and white, presented Greco with flowers.
“It’s bittersweet to leave. This is family,” said Greco, who created the chorus in 1983 and leaves it in the hands of Kenneth Boos.
“These lovely people have gathered together for the love of singing,” Greco told the audience in between songs.
“There’s no need to purchase an instrument or pay for lessons, just come and sing.”
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