Open Menu

Welcome to the official website of the Music Club Chorus of New Castle

Inspiration of the Day "Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." Psalm 55:22 Quotation of the Day "Every great achievement was once considered impossible." ~ Unknown Mission Statement The mission of the MUSIC CLUB CHORUS of NEW CASTLE is to prepare and perform George Frideric Handels Messiah - the watershed oratorio that has excited and challenged humankind for generations -- and to offer to our listeners and performers the distinct opportunity to be a part of this truly monumental classic. We strive to continually develop the musical, artistic, educational, and spiritual aspects of this single work. We aim to include participants across age, racial, and physically challenged spectrums. (The chorus has included the blind and regularly offers an interpreter-in-sign language for the hearing impaired. All performance sites are accessible to the handicapped.) It is common to have both teenagers and octogenarians working on and performing the same voice part. Did You Know In 1939, the MUSIC CLUB CHORUS of NEW CASTLE premiered its annual performance of Handel's Messiah at the First Presbyterian Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Originally comprised of members, associates, and friends of the New Castle Music Club, the chorus has recruited members from over forty area churches as well as students from several local high schools and colleges and citizens from across western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. This production has historically featured talented, regional musicians and music educators-- including organists, pianists, vocal soloists, trumpeters, flautists, percussionists, and choir members. The chorus has performed annually (excepting 1969 and 1970) under the leadership of three experienced conductors: Mrs. W. Walter (Ruth) Braham (1939-1968), Mrs. Kenneth (Betty) Gibson (1971-1990), Harry M. Cunningham (1991-2022), and Ed Petrus (2023-current). Performances have previously been hosted by over a dozen New Castle area churches, the Scottish Rite Cathedral of New Castle, the Third Baptist Church of Youngstown, and Westminster College. The Saturday, November 28, 1998 performance marked the first collaboration between the New Castle Music Club Chorus and Penn State/Shenango. Music of life: Wampum man has spent 50 years building custom flutes https://ncnewsonline-cnhi.newsmemory.com/?publink=46eb250c4_1348679 DAN IRWIN NEW CASTLE NEWS Jonathan Landell could have played with a professional symphony orchestra. However, the Wampum resident opted instead to spend his life building one of their instruments. Now, the 75-year-old flute maker is really happy he did. Landell, who moved to Wampum in 2021 and is now in his 50th year of building custom-made flutes, was a private music student in Boston as a teen. “I was going to be an orchestral player; that was my life plan,” he said. “The sciences and mechanical things were all easy for me. I had a ham radio station and I built radios and equipment for my ham station. That was my passion in high school. “But music was definitely number one. I practiced consistently and I got into the New England Conservatory (of Music) at the last possible minute. They accepted me into flute studio, and I studied with Boston Symphony players.” At one point, Landell auditioned for, and was accepted into, the Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship Program, which is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer academy for advanced musical study. It was an experience that gave him insight into the life of a professional musician. “That was just the peak,” he said. “We had four or five weeks of constant rehearsing and performing. and I realized that the players are not happy. They are always at rehearsal, always performing, teaching, running to distant constant performances. “And the wives are not happy, and the children never see their dad. It’s not a job for a family person who wants to have children and a real life.” Still, the biggest life changer for Landell came at age 19, when he found a job with the Boston-based Powell Flute Company, “one of the best in the business,” he said. After reading a book written by Theodbald Boehm, the inventor of the modern flute, “it just clicked,” Landell said. “I thought, ‘This was a hundred years ago. How hard could it be?’” The company took Landell on as an apprentice, and he stayed there three years. “They taught me whatever I wanted to know.” BUILDING FLUTES Eventually, Landell married and started his own business. He built two flutes in 1972, with the first sold to a man who had given him the dimensions for the positions of the tone holes on the flute. “The further down you put the holes, the lower the note; the farther up, the sharper,” he explained. It wasn’t long before Landell became one of the key players in a 1970s design revolution that affected how flutes are tuned. Until the middle of that decade, he explained, flutes were built to a turning pitch scale of A435. However, a flute maker in London named Albert Cooper then devised a scale for A440, and when Landell heard the music of Cooper’s new design, “I could hear that the intonation was nearly perfect,” he says on his website. Eventually, he would meet Cooper and adopt his design, building what he says was the first Cooper scale flute made in America, That scale became the standard for all modern flute makers, according to Landell, but “For about the first 10 years of my business, I was the only maker of flutes that played in tune at 440. So I had lots of orders. It was great. The two big flute makers in Boston had a four-year waiting list. So there was a lot of business waiting out there.” BUILDING A LIFE Landell was enjoying his vocation, but his venue was a different story. “Boston was driving me nuts,” he said. So he packed up and relocated to southern Vermont, where he found both peace and God. “I was ‘self identifying’ as a hippie, and all the things that go along with that,” he said. “And I gave the first prayer that I can remember to God: ‘Please take this smoke away from me, because I’d tried to quit — tobacco and marijuana — and I couldn’t. “And he did — the next day it was gone, and I was a different person.” In the meantime, Landell’s wife, who had experienced mental health issues, had taken her own life. He prayed again that God would provide someone to come alongside him and share his life. “I’m not going to look; you do it — that was my prayer,” he said. “I’m not dating, I’m not going to bars. I’m just going to wait. and I waited. “Six months later, I met the prettiest girl I’d ever seen, and we got married and moved to northern Vermont, close to her family.” The couple ended up having five children — all musicians — and with his wife, Marcie, on the piano and Landell on the flute, they still play together. Indeed, they will be among the musicians performing in the New Castle Music Club Chorus’ annual presentation of Handel’s “Messiah” at 3 p.m. Nov. 27 in Ellwood City’s Holy Redeemer Church. NEW HOME, SAME BUSINESS The Landells’ youngest daughter lives with her family in Wampum, and a year ago, her parents decided to move to the borough to be near her. Landell has a small shop on Main Street in Wampum where he does flute repairs and continues to build flutes for professional players. So far, he’s built 186 of them during his career, mostly out of silver or gold, except for one titanium instrument he built for himself (it’s half the weight of silver, he said, and is much harder — “like steel.”) Landell said he spends about 100 hours to build a flute, and acknowledges the instrument can be made commercially in about five hours via an assembly line-type process. “The top players have realized that they really need something that’s more than an assembly line product,” he said. Among the least desirable of the manufactured flutes are those made in China, he said. They are the only ones he refuses to repair. “They’re badly made,” he said. “They’re terrible. I’d have to spend hours just fixing their mistakes.” Landell’s flutes are not a “one size fits all.” Depending on what the buyer wants, they can vary in length, have open or closed holes or even optional keys. In addition to being a fixer and a builder, Landell is also a teacher. He does classes in his shop, where he can handle three to four students at a time (a registration form is available at www. landellflutes.com). Now, he’s looking for someone for even longer- term instruction. “I hope to find an apprentice,” he said. “I’m 75. I don’t want to stop working. I’m healthy and I love what I do. I wouldn’t know what to do if I retired. “But if I can find somebody who is as serious abut taking this all on, I’m looking for someone to train up for a few years, then take over the shop. I’ll sell it as a business — a going business for 50 years.” Landell credits God for that success. His business logo is an Alpha Omega symbol, in which he sees his initials: JAL. “I chose that even before I came to know the Lord,” he said. “Looking back on that and everything that’s happened, I’ve got to say that this all is the Lord’s work to provide for us. “We haven’t been wealthy, but we’ve never missed a meal.” Sad News While visiting his mother in Florida, one of the Club’s tenors, Eric Peters, received word that his son Judd Matthew Peters had passed away.  A memorial service was held at Clen-Moore Presbyterian Church on December 17th.  A group of Chorus members was in attendance and honored Judd by singing in beautiful harmony.  Please continue to keep Eric in your embracing & tender prayers. That's what our "family" does. Thanks! EXP Director Announcement After 30 years of his outstanding leadership of the Music Club Chorus, MR. HARRY CUNNINGHAM has stepped away from that position! Harry has been an extraordinary director -- guiding us, inspiring us, and teaching us to be the best we can be. His musical knowledge is unsurpassed, and his devotion to the true meaning of “Messiah” has kept our focus on not just the beautiful melodies, but also on the spirituality of the oratorio. THANK YOU, Harry, for all you have done! I’ll be stepping up from being Harry’s assistant to leading this incredible group of musicians beginning with the performance scheduled for November 26th, 2023. I am absolutely honored to do so, and pledge to do my best to continue in the tradition of this great chorus. Edward X. Petrus