Several Butler County residents are taking part in the New Castle Music Club Chorus' 75th presentation of Handel's “Messiah” at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Vitus Roman Catholic Church, 910 S. Mercer St., New Castle.

Butler resident Harry Cunningham will direct the presentation of the oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, and first performed in Dublin in 1742.

“An oratorio is very much like an opera, but there's not much scenery, nor costumes nor instrumentals,” Cunningham said.

He said it is one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.

“It's a masterwork oratorio and it's performed all over the world in many languages,” said Cunningham, the retired choral director of the Moniteau School District and senior choir director at First English Lutheran Church, 241 N. Main St.

“It's divided into three parts: the Annunciation and Birth of Christ, the Crucifixion and the Ascension,” he said.

“Traditionally, it was first performed at Lent and Easter,” he said, but Advent is primarily when “The Messiah” is performed now.

“Our tradition has been to do it the first Sunday in Advent,” he said.

Cunningham said the 70-member chorus has been practicing weekly since September.

“It's a technically demanding masterwork. It requires a good bit of preparation and skillful reading and singing,” he said.

Because “The Messiah” is almost three hours long, Cunningham said a new feature of the upcoming 75th performance will be the use of professionally trained narrators to speak the choruses that won't be sung.

Among these will be Larry Hamil of Butler, who received his Master of Divinity degree from Drew University in Madison, N.J., and taught high school English for 30 years.

Joining the chorus this year will be piano, organ, flute, trumpet and tympani.

Nanette Kaplan Solomon, professor emerita of music at Slippery Rock University, will serve as concert pianist.

Butler resident Sharon Perschke will again perform as flutist. She taught music for 25 years at St. Luke Lutheran School in Cabot.

The Rev. James Dollhopf, former pastor at First English Lutheran Church and Sue Sontum of Saxonburg will be vocalists.

“One of the main features this year is the dancers. We have 13 Slippery Rock University students — 12 women and 1 man — in honor of the 75th anniversary. We've never had dancers before,” Cunningham said.

Nora Ambrosio, professor of dance at Slippery Rock, is the choreographer. She said she selected the dancers, all SRU dance majors.

“Some of the dancers actually learned the choreography last semester. Others were brought in at the beginning of the semester, and we have been rehearsing once a week,” Ambrosio said.

“Harry Cunningham gave me the option of choosing the pieces of music to which we are going to dance. I was drawn to the most melodic pieces, as well as the ones that had some dramatic moments that we could mirror in the choreography.

“Some of my students are doing solos, and they choreograph those pieces themselves. I chose the music for them and then assigned them specific pieces,” she said.

“We are using modern dance and contemporary dance movement vocabulary, as well as pulling in some liturgical dance movements.

“It is surprising at how nicely some of the music lends itself to doing choreography. There are lovely melodies and some very poignant lyrics that we found easy to connect to,” Ambrosio added.

“Audience members have made this a tradition, and some chorus member have participated for decades. We have three members from Geneva, Ohio, who drive 90 miles for rehearsals and performances,” Cunningham said.

Admission to the performance is free but donations will be accepted to help defray production costs.

The performance is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency.