“My passion is singing.”

Those are the words of Claudia Handlovic, who will be a featured performer at the prelude to a concert being held by the Lutheran Church of St. John in Jim Thorpe on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Her performance will occur before the “Blessings of the Seasons” concert and will be accompanied by pianist, Randall D. Perry, maestro of the Bach and Handel Chorale.

The special program is to benefit the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s World Hunger Appeal.

According to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, 1 of 10 people worldwide faces hunger. That’s 73.3 million people.

In the United States, 18 million are food insecure; in Carbon County 13.3% are food insecure.

An early age

Handlovic, a native of Romania, and now a resident of Lehighton for the past 17 years, began her love for music at a very early age.

“I was playing the violin and the cello when I was 6 years old,” she said. “My family all played instruments. There was always music being played in our home in Romania.”

She attended “music schools” at the elementary, middle and high school levels and studied at the University of Music in Bucharest. At age 14, she took private voice lessons and realized that she wanted to sing more than she wanted to play.

In 1994, she appeared with the Tel Aviv Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1997, she was finalist in the Hans Gabor Belvedere singing competition in Vienna and performed with the Romanian Radio Orchestra at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

She also performed with the Vox Renaissance in a Beethoven Gala Concert in Philadelphia in 1998, and a year later she sang her first solo program in Italy. Her repertoire includes several opera roles throughout Romania and Finland.

Although her extensive singing career has flourished, Handlovic admits it does not pay all the bills. She moved to Walnutport and got a job at Weis Market in Schnecksville.

“I worked my way up the ladder to become store manager before I moved to Lehighton,” she said, “and I’ve been the store manager of the Giant Food Store there for the past 18 years.”

Besides working, she spends time with her husband raising her three children in between her singing schedules.

Handlovic calls her voice her “instrument,” and to keep it in tune she must sing every single day. Her musical interests are not limited to opera.

“My favorite singer is Freddy Mercury from Queen and I have a picture of me with a wax figure of him,” she said. “Someday, maybe I’ll sing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ my favorite song from the group.”

For the prelude on Sunday, Handlovic will perform Franz Shubert’s “Ave Maria” and Giac omo Puccini’s “O mio babbino caro.”

The 3 p.m. subsequent concert by BQE, a professional string quartet from New York City, will include classical and holiday selections, theme songs from motion pictures, and popular renditions from Beatles’ albums.

Perry, the longtime maestro of the acclaimed Bach and Handel Chorale, will accompany Handlovic on the baby grand piano that has been a fixture of St. John’s Church.

He had this to say about the soprano’s singing ability: “This will be the second time I’ve performed with Claudia. She is wonderful to work with and she has a beautiful voice. She’s in total control. She’s mechanically sound with every word that she sings at multiple volumes. Claudia can be soft at one moment and then in the next, she can blow the doors off of the building.”

Church council member Bonnie Hoffman echoed Perry’s assessment.

“She’s performed at our church functions before and she has a fabulous voice,” Hoffman said. “I was outside the building one time while she was practicing inside and I could hear the volume of her voice from where I was, and she was singing without a microphone.”

BQE Strings

Launched in the spring of 2020, the BOE Strings are a quartet of seasoned chamber musicians with a passion for connecting the past and the present. These European conservatory trained talents offer fresh interpretations on a range of music, from Bach to Guns N Roses.

Founders violinist/violist Sabina Nemtusiak and cellist Wojciech Szczech met while attending the Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland. Throughout their studies and early years after graduation, the couple undertook various projects with ensembles like Cappella Cracoviensis, Sinfonietta Cracovia and National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. They delighted audiences around the world, in cities as diverse as Little Rock, Arkansas, and Sapporo, Japan.

While Sabina and Wojciech continued to focus on Viennese Classics through the late Romantic period, their keen interest in exploring contemporary repertoire earned them third place at Krakow’s International Competition of Contemporary Chamber Music in 2005.

In 2008, Sabina and Wojciech relocated to New York City, where they pursued other career paths while continuing to nurture their musical calling. Both are active in the Polish community, taking part in cultural projects with the Slavic Arts Ensemble, the Polish Slavic Folk Dance Company and the Hejnal Choir Society.

Concert information

The event, organized by church member Irene Remmel and the Rev. William Thompson, is to raise enough money to help St. John’s reach its goal of $5,000, which will be contributed to the cause of combating world hunger.

The cost is $20 for each adult; children under the age of 10 are free. Tickets are available by contacting Remmel at 570-325-4534 or they may be purchased at the door.

The church is located at 319 South Ave., Jim Thorpe. Parking is available in the church lot and also the former Jim Thorpe Junior High School on Center Avenue, two blocks away.

The youth of the church are also having a “Sweet Treats” cookie sale same day, with all proceeds from that going to fight world hunger.