Middleport community concert will honor founding member, Herb Koenig

May 11 event will include popcorn and music from movies

Provided photos: The Middleport Community Choir, under the leadership of Ric Jones of Medina, is shown in concert last year with the Festival Chorus from Buffalo. Their upcoming spring concert May 11 will be a movie-themed afternoon at the Middleport Firehall.

MIDDLEPORT – Music will fill the air, along with popcorn and movies, when the Middleport Community Choir presents its spring concert at 4 p.m. May 11 at Middleport Firehall.

“This is definitely a different take on our concerts,” said director Ric Jones of Medina. “I think it is refreshing for both the choir and the audience to offer something different.”

Herb Koenig, one of the founding members of the Middleport Community Choir, practices a solo for a previous concert. Koenig, who died this month after a battle with cancer, will be honored during their May 11 concert.

The program was made possible by a grant from the Statewide Community Regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

The concert, performed by the Middleport Community Choir and Middleport Bell Tones under director and choir accompanist Debby Clark, will be a mixed choral and small group compilation of classic movie theme songs.

Title of the concert is “Meet me at the Movies,” and all music will be taken from the movies. The selections are far-reaching, Jones said, from older movies to more recent ones. Featured will be soloists, small groups, the Middleport Belltones and the full Middleport Community Choir.

To set the atmosphere of the movies, they will be selling popcorn and drinks. Occasional movie clips will be played between choir selections.

A highlight of the concert will be a tribute to the late Herb Koenig.

“Herb was an original member and the major reason the choir exists in the first place,” Jones said. “This choir is his legacy. We sure miss him.”

Koenig sang tenor, and in the multiple special concerts performed over the years, he almost always sang a solo. His last solo was “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from “Carousel,” Jones said.

Admission to the concert is free, but a freewill offering will be received.

Jones said they like performing at the firehall because it offers a more relaxed, intimate environment and allows them to show movie clips and offer popcorn and drinks.