It was the first time I ever sang at a funeral.

Phoenicia Community Choir director Maria Todaro feels that a community choir should not only be composed of community members, it should also serve the community, providing music on ceremonial occasions. At Christmas, the choir led caroling on Main Street, and by the time we got to the center of town, we had over 200 people singing with us.

On Good Friday we performed Fauré’s Cantique and other sacred music for the congregation of the Phoenicia Wesleyan Church, where we have been rehearsing. Maria — an opera singer, co-founder and co-director of the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice — has suggested that we also be available for weddings and funerals. When choir member Marge Tiso’s dear friend Lawrence Monachelli passed away, Maria recruited a group of seven to sing Larry to his rest.

At the cemetery in Allaben, Marge sang a hymn, and rest of us chimed in on the refrain, harmonizing. We sang the Latin prayer Adoramus Te, which we had learned for Christmas, in four-part harmony, and Maria sang Ave Maria solo. Twenty-five mourners listened deeply. Their warm thanks afterward were most gratifying.

Now we return to preparing for the Festival of the Voice, where we will perform Vivaldi’s mighty Gloria — a 40-minute-long oratorio — with two soloists, three other choirs, and an orchestra, as the finale to the four-day festival on the afternoon of Sunday, August 7, in the Parish Field behind the Phoenicia post office.

The highlights of the festival are the pros, including celebrated soprano Lauren Flanigan, gospel singer and Broadway performer Rozz Morehead, who rocked the Methodist Church at last year’s Voicefest, and Metropolitan Opera performers singing Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Maria, her husband, baritone Louis Otey, and a third Phoenician opera singer, baritone Kerry Henderson. I am looking forward to seeing some of the 20 performances of all kinds of vocal music presented over four days, but it’s the choral event that I’m psyched for this year.

Like many of the choir members, I have some musical experience but am by no means an expert. I was an alto in the high school glee club, and I sing a few times a year in an anti-rock band with my husband, my daughter, and a friend, mostly at poetry readings. (We have done one wedding and performed at a birthday party this month.) I can’t exactly read music, and it’s been a challenge to re-learn singing in harmony, but I’m getting better and better since December, when I started hitting the weekly rehearsals regularly.

Some choir members are even less experienced, while others are or have been professional musicians. Nancy Howell, calligrapher and alto, was in a New Wave cover band in her native Albuquerque until she struck out for New York City. There she met her husband, and they had a rock band until they moved to Phoenicia in 2005. That’s when, says Nancy, “The music died. That’s why I’m here with the choir.” I lean on Nancy a lot for the right notes.

Former Phoenicia elementary school teacher Jean Druffner sings with the sopranos. Her musical experience consists mainly of singing and playing guitar with her students and performing with the Shandaken Theatrical Society (STS), whose members knocked on the door of her classroom in the 1970s and asked her to appear in their very first musical, The Sound of Music.

Tenor Dennis Yerry appears regularly as a composer and performer of Native American music and as half of a jazz duo with Ann Osmond. Yerry and Osmond will be performing at the Voicefest, and Yerry will also play music for kids as part of the band Ralph and Ralph, along with rock drummer Eric Parker and fellow choir member Katie Taylor, a.k.a. Kt Legnini. Because it’s been hard to attract enough men to fill out the tenor and bass sections, Katie has been singing with the tenors, her voice flying an octave above the men’s notes.

Yerry is also chair of the World Music component of the festival. Internationally known Palestinian musician Simon Shaheen will sing and play traditional Arabic music on the ‘oud, as well as jazz and Western classical pieces on violin. Shokan-based cantor Robert Esformes will present ancient Sephardic/Ladino love songs, ballads, and prayers.

Eighty-four-year-old Jim Barden has been holding down our bass section. A perennial performer at the STS Playhouse since 1980, Barden is also a member of the Community Chorale of the Catskills, which backs up the opera performances at the Belleayre Music Festival and will be joining us on the Gloria at the Voicefest. Choirs from Albany and New Paltz are also participating. The soloists are soprano Alisa Peterson and mezzo-soprano Margaret Peterson, both international performers, with Elizabeth Scott, recently returned from Spoleto, directing the whole shebang, including an 18-piece Baroque-style chamber orchestra.

One of the youngest members of the Phoenicia choir is 26-year-old soprano Becca Frank, a dancer who has sung in choirs since fifth grade. What she likes about the community choir is the range of skill levels, which she says reduces the sense of competition and ego.

The size of the choir varies. At one winter rehearsal, there were seven of us; usually there are around 15, and as the festival approaches, we have been swelling up to 30 or more, some of the participants borrowed from Kingston’s highly skilled Ars Choralis.

For me, the rehearsals offer a major mental and vocal workout, as I concentrate to follow Maria’s detailed direction. Even the warmups are challenging, as she listens to our efforts and suggests refinements, helping us open our throats to darken the sound (“Everyone yawn — feel that? In the back of your throat?”) and urging us to project our voices (“Visualize a curve — let your voice go up and forward. We want that buzz in the nose and lips.”). It’s like getting a voice lesson every week.

Some of the music is difficult, but over time, the tunes come more easily, and my ear is starting to match vocal patterns to the written notes. The payoff comes when we have labored over each phrase, gradually mingling all four voices, and then we string together five or six pages of music. We listen to each other as the complicated harmonies alternate, separate into dissonance, then reunite in powerful chords. At the end, we look at each other in astonishment, and I can feel God in the room.

I expect Her presence will be palpable on August 7 — and probably sooner.++

For information on joining the Phoenicia Community Choir—all skill levels welcome, no audition required—email Maria Todaro at rmtodaro@hotmail.com.

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Voicefest performances

The Phoenicia International Festival of Voice will be held Thursday, August 4, through Sunday, August 7, in Phoenicia. Some performances will take place at a bandshell in the Phoenicia Park, rain or shine — bring blankets or chairs, a picnic, an umbrella. Other events, at locations elsewhere in the hamlet, may sell out early. General admission ranges from $15 to $25, with children under 12 free at all events except for the kids’ shows, which are $5. VIP seating and 4-day passes are also available. For tickets and details, see www.phoeniciavoicefest.com.

Thursday, August 4

Rozz Morehead Gospel Concert Park 7:30 p.m.

Friday, August 5

“Latte Lecture,” Mama’s Boy Coffee Shop 9 a.m.

Ralph and Ralph Children’s Music Train Museum 11:30 a.m.

(coordinated with train rides)

Justin Kolb and Friends, 6 Hands Piano Recital Park 1:30 p.m.

The Kitchen Sink Cabaret STS Playhouse 3 p.m.

Ann Osmond & Dennis Yerry Jazz Cabaret Duo Wesleyan Church 5 p.m.

Soprano Lauren Flanigan Concert Park 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 6

“Latte Lecture” Mama’s Boy Coffee Shop 9 a.m.

Ralph and Ralph Children’s Music Train Museum 11:30 a.m.

(coordinated with train rides )

Harvard Chamber Singers Renaissance Music Catholic Church 12:30 p.m.

Justin Kolb and Friends 6 Hands Piano Recital Park 2 p.m.

The Paper Planets Reggae/Rock Band Mama’s Boy Coffee Shop 3:15 p.m.

The Kitchen Sink Cabaret STS Playhouse 3:30 p.m.

Uncle Rock Children’s Music Train Museum 4 p.m.

Robert Esformes World Music Methodist Church 5 p.m.

Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” Opera Park 7 p.m.

Sunday, August 7

“Latte Lecture” Mama’s Boy Coffee Shop 9 a.m.

The Power of Song Children’s Choir Methodist Church 1 p.m.

Simon Shaheen World Music Park 2 p.m.

Vivaldi’s Gloria Choral Music Park 4 p.m.++