Jonathan Laabs was close to burning out early in his career as a music educator in 2009. After days of pouring himself into his work, he needed something to fill him back up. So he tried out for the Bel Canto Chorus – a classical vocal ensemble and one of the oldest performing arts groups in Milwaukee – and made it as a section leader. Soon, he felt revitalized and inspired. He sang with the chorus for eight years. “In many ways, Bel Canto saved my teaching career,” he says.
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Laabs, 41, is now Bel Canto’s artistic director, taking over in 2024 from longtime leader Richard Hynson. He’s not alone in feeling transformed by the power of singing in communion. About 100 singers – mostly volunteer, some paid, all auditioned – raise their voices for the chorus each season. They come from different backgrounds, skill levels, ages and occupations. But for two and a half hours of rehearsals a week and four concerts a year, they come together for the same reason: Singing is part of who they are.
“For me, it’s no joke – it’s almost akin to a professional commitment,” says Pedro Lima, a professor of interior architecture and design at Mount Mary University and owner of an interior design studio. Lima, 49, sang in college but gave up performing for years before auditioning and joining Bel Canto in 2020. He likes being an amateur among more experienced singers, a role that’s opposite of his day job. When he performs, “I have to be 100% in that moment, giving mind and body full attention to what I’m doing,” Lima says. Having that kind of creative outlet “does make me better at what I do professionally.”
Rebecca Whitney is the director of education at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, but she’s also a part-time soprano section leader with the chorus. “The act of music-making is such a wonderful, cathartic thing,” she says. “I would really miss it if I didn’t do it.” As someone who majored in vocal performance, Whitney, 56, appreciates being able to sing while staying rooted in her hometown – something that’s tough to do with the nomadic nature of full-time singing gigs. The chorus has also introduced Whitney to new music and some of her closest friends.
Kerry Saver, a retired teacher, says Bel Canto changed her life. She auditioned for the chorus in 1981 without having taken a lesson. As part of Bel Canto, Saver has traveled to Europe to perform, trained her voice to the point that she performed solo recitals, and formed tight-knit friendships. “It’s very much a family kind of thing,” Saver says.
In regard to new leadership and an influx of younger singers, Saver is excited for the chorus’s next chapter. At 72, she has to work harder to keep her voice in shape, but she’s not done. “I’ll do it until someone says, ‘You’re not sounding so good.’”
Director Laabs has several ideas for the future, including a desire to show that making music is a lifelong pursuit. Bel Canto’s April 26 concert at Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School embodies this: Verdi’s Requiem with about 300 musicians, from high school choir students to the Kettle Moraine Symphony, and Bel Canto in the center of it all.
“Every single [member] here could be a professional musician,” Lima says. “They just have other lives.”
