‘I Needed To Fill A Hole In My Heart’: Huntington Choir Marks 22 Years

HUNTINGTON, NY — Huntington resident Dr. Jennifer Scott Miceli knew her mother’s cancer diagnosis was severe. What she did not understand until afterward was how different preparing for death would be from living with the loss.

“I was prepared for her death because we knew that the diagnosis was dire and that she would likely not survive it,” Miceli told Patch. “But I was not prepared for the loss. Those are two different things.”

Her mother, Bonnie Scott, had survived colon cancer in her 40s before the disease returned decades later in her lungs and bones. Eighteen months passed between the later diagnosis and her death on March 19, 2004, two days after her 73rd birthday.

Miceli, the youngest of six children and the only daughter, said she and her mother had been exceptionally close. After the death, music gave Miceli a place to put the grief that followed.

“Being a musician, I’m fortunate because I have a container for my grief,” she said. “A lot of people don’t have that opportunity to be able to do something positive with their grief, but those of us who are in the arts do, and we feel compelled to do it. I needed to fill a hole in my heart, and I filled that hole in my heart by starting Belle Voci that summer.”

More than two decades later, the Belle Voci Intergenerational Choral Society is celebrating 22 completed years as it enters its 23rd performance season.

The nonprofit’s “Celebrate Us!” concert series will begin with its annual Rose Remembrance concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Huntington. A Candlelight Remembrance concert will follow at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, at the Parish of St. Dominic in Oyster Bay.

Both programs will include professional and amateur singers, featured soloists, instrumentalists and ceremonies honoring cancer survivors, people currently living with cancer and those who have died.

Tickets cost $30, with a discounted price of $20 for seniors and students with identification. Tickets may be purchased at the door or through Belle Voci’s website.

From 12 Singers To More Than 60

Miceli founded the ensemble while serving as director of music education at LIU Post. The original group included about 12 college-aged women from her vocal jazz ensemble and other singers she knew through the university’s music program.

Belle Voci has since grown to more than 60 singers, ranging from preteens to women well into their senior years. The ensemble includes professional singers and skilled amateurs, bringing together women from nearly every generation.

Miceli said she was not thinking about whether the group would survive for decades when she formed it. She was responding to her sadness, searching for a way to take action against the disease that had killed her mother and seeking the companionship of other women.

“I lost my mom, so these girls who started in my group, the college-aged women, they were like my surrogate daughters,” Miceli said.

One of those original singers, Kimberly Santora, whose maiden name is Spiegel, has remained with Belle Voci for every season since its founding, Miceli said.

Over its history, the ensemble has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to organizations supporting cancer prevention, treatment, hospice care and patient wellness. Past beneficiaries have included the American Cancer Society, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Northwell Hospice Care Network and the Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition.

The Shining Stars Foundation received the inaugural donation from Bloom, Belle Voci’s youth division, in 2025.

Teaching Young Singers To Give Back

Miceli said this year’s beneficiaries will be selected after the concerts, once the organization determines how much money was generated through ticket sales, donations, sponsorships and other support.

Belle Voci’s executive board will select one recipient, while the young singers in Bloom will research and choose another cancer-related nonprofit.

“I’m teaching philanthropy through the organization,” Miceli said. “This is something that’s really important to me, to use your gifts for the betterment of humanity and the planet.”

Bloom was launched in 2025 for exemplary middle and high school singers. Along with developing musicianship and performance skills, the division is meant to teach students that talent comes with a responsibility to serve others.

Miceli said that principle applies whether a person’s gift is singing, dancing, painting, horseback riding or something entirely different.

“I believe very strongly that if we are given that gift, if you come into this planet, this incarnation, with a gift, that it’s your job to use it to make the planet a better place in some way,” she said.

Guiding Audiences Through Grief And Hope

That philosophy also influences how Miceli plans each Belle Voci concert.

She listens to exemplary women’s choirs and studies concert programs, searching for works that reflect the emotional experiences of cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and grieving families.

“I have kind of a formula of how I want people to experience the myriad emotions associated with being a cancer caregiver, or having recently lost someone to cancer, or being somebody who is yourself a cancer survivor,” she said. “I want the music to evoke many different human emotions.”

The concerts typically begin with a dramatic processional intended to establish a spiritual and contemplative atmosphere.

This year’s program will feature Abbie Betinis’ “From Behind the Caravan: Songs of Hâfez,” a five-movement work drawing from Persian poetry and musical influences. The ensemble will also perform Gwyneth Walker’s “The Tree of Peace,” a work centered on listening, unity and recognizing a shared humanity.

Additional works will include compositions by Hildegard von Bingen, Podd, Hagenberg and Powell.

Pianist Alex Pryrodny, the music director at St. John’s Episcopal Church, will accompany the Huntington concert. Collaborative pianist Christine Doré-Connolly will accompany the Oyster Bay performance.

A Ceremony For Survivors And Loved Ones Lost

One of the most significant portions of each program is the Rose Remembrance Ceremony, during which names are read as roses are carried in procession and placed into a vase.

The ritual is not limited to memorializing people who have died. It also recognizes cancer survivors and people who remain in treatment.

“In the remembrance ceremony, it’s not just those who’ve passed,” Miceli said, explaining that the ritual acknowledges “persons living with cancer, cancer survivors and those in memoriam.”

She said people facing cancer will hear the names of others living through similar circumstances, along with survivors who have continued their lives after treatment.

“They would feel in good company there because they would hear a lot of cancer survivors’ names who would give them hope, and they would hear a lot of names of other people who are in the same situation they’re in,” she said.

Miceli has also witnessed the effect the music can have within the choir.

She recalled a singer who was diagnosed with stage-four breast cancer and initially given only months to live. Years after that prognosis, the woman remained alive and returned to Belle Voci after the most acute stage of her illness.

During that season, the ensemble performed “The Warrior,” a piece about women discovering strength within themselves. The singers used walking sticks, striking them against the floor as part of the staging.

“She said that that experience was so cathartic for her, to come back and be able to put her emotions into that song, because she recognized the warrior in herself,” Miceli said.

Despite the solemn material, Belle Voci does not intend for audiences to leave the concert consumed by sadness. Miceli said the ensemble traditionally performs a large, lighthearted number with choreography near the end of the program to lift the room.

The Song That Became An Annual Tradition

The choir closes each annual remembrance concert with “Con te partirò,” widely known in English as “Time to Say Goodbye.”

The tradition is rooted in the final moment Miceli shared with her mother.

“When my mom died, the moment she left the planet, I was in bed with her, and she opened her eyes, and that song was playing,” Miceli said. “We had music in the room, and that song was playing. ‘Time to Say Goodbye.’ She died.”

Miceli remembered her mother as an artist who was quiet, shy, introspective and introverted. The timing of the song created what Miceli described as a dramatic departure that was unlike her mother’s understated personality.

The ensemble has performed it each year since.

Belle Voci’s work has also received recognition beyond Long Island. The ensemble was named a finalist for the American Prize in Choral Performance’s community division in 2023.

The choir brought its cancer-prevention and wellness mission to the United Kingdom during its 20th season. In 2027, Belle Voci is scheduled to tour Amsterdam and Brussels alongside the Huntington Choral Society, where Miceli also serves as music director.

Miceli is additionally the director of Long Island Sound Vocal Jazz at LIU Post.

Through its concerts, remembrance rituals, charitable giving and youth education, Belle Voci continues the mission that emerged from Miceli’s grief more than two decades ago.

“If you come into this planet, this incarnation, with a gift,” she said, “it’s your job to use it to make the planet a better place in some way.”