The New Life Choir At 10

By Dan Guarino

To the parishioners of St. Virgilius Roman Catholic Church in Broad Channel, it has become a familiar, uplifting sound. Accompanied by organ or guitar, up in the choir loft, the voices of the New Life Choir blend together and drift out over the congregation gathered below.

This year, the Choir celebrates its tenth year. As its members from Rockaway and Broad Channel mark this milestone, co-founder/coordinator Margaret Wagner and musical director Anna Wiley talk about its beginnings in 2015 and journey since.

Wagner remembers one evening years ago, the snow was falling as she and a friend were leaving an NYC restaurant. “We started singing a Christmas song,” she says. “It brought me back to my days as a kid singing in the St. Virgilius Choir.  It was so much fun singing in the choir for Christmas Mass,” Wagner recalled.

Later she joined the St. Virgilius Folk Group, started by husband and wife, Jay and Doris Dady, and Doris’ brother, Chris Staudt. Singing up near the altar, “the idea was to have more of the parishioners sing with us.”

Recalling that snowy musical NYC evening, she thought “wouldn’t it be great to sing in a choir again, especially around Christmas?”

Wagner inquired on Facebook if anyone knew of an existing choir she could join. At the same time, she received an email from Doris Dady asking if she thought it would be possible to start their own choir at the local church.

“Doris was looking for a project and thought, what better way to lift up everyone’s spirit than by working for the Lord, and bringing a choir back into our church?

“Doris was the music artist,” Wagner said. “I was good at organizing things. We were a great team. So, together we met, laid out a plan, and next we went to meet with Father Ahlemeyer,” who loved the idea.

Originally called The St. Virgilius Choir, eventually “Doris suggested ‘The New Life Choir’ and we all thought it was a great name,” Wagner said. First singing for Christmas and Easter Masses, in recent years, they started performing at every Sunday’s services.

Current musical director/guitar accompanist Anna Wiley is proud to have been a member right from the beginning. “Having been involved with the St. Camillus Folk Group and the St. Rose of Lima Choir in the past, I was very excited to learn that Doris was thinking about forming a choir at St. Virgilius R.C. Church,” she said. “I knew it would be a great opportunity to participate in the music ministry once again and to make new friends.”

While some members have come and gone over the years, their current complement includes Wagner, Wiley, Samar “Sammie” Awad, Donna Badamo, Chris Carricato, Carol Corbett, Lee Gilmartin, Dan Guarino, Maureen Harkins, Theresa Trainor and new addition Corrinne Arcuri.

Wagner describes her role as organizing meetings and practices, communicating with the group, coordinating between members and the choir director, along with Christmas gatherings and any singing events outside of Mass, such as at the annual Broad Channel Christmas Tree Lighting.

Wiley said, “My roles include (being) Leader of Song and guitarist at the 10 a.m. Mass. As the musical director, I’m also responsible for conducting choir rehearsals,” as well picking out each Sunday’s songs.

She and Wagner acknowledge the great efforts of co-founder/choir director Doris Dady in the group’s success. Dady passed away in May 2025, and is deeply missed by all members. Wiley says she was “one of the most talented people that I have ever encountered, having been an accomplished musician, singer, and composer who wrote the harmonies for many of our songs.”

As Dady dealt with progressive illness, Wiley gradually took on the task of musically leading the group. “We are very thankful that Anna was able to give us her time to keep the choir going,” Wagner said, stating without her, “there would be no New Life Choir today. I know Doris is smiling down on all of us for continuing to sing to the Lord at Mass every week.”

“Doris inspired everyone she met with her kindness and never-ending faith in God,” Wiley said. Through the choir, her inspiration has touched and uplifted others through song.

For example, “One sad but touching moment for me,” Wagner said was “when the choir sang at the funeral for Adrienne Guttieri,” a well-loved, young Broad Channel woman and up-and-coming chef. “She was a bright star amongst all of her friends and family. It was one of the most difficult services I had to attend.”

With hurried funeral arrangements, it was unclear if the choir would be singing until the last minute. Local DJ Timmy Tubridy quickly hooked up microphones so they could be heard inside and by the overflowing crowd outside the church. With recent new arrangements by Dady, Wagner noted, “The whole choir sang their parts beautifully. I knew it was a special moment, as sad as the Mass was, I knew the choir of angels were singing for Adrienne.

“It was a difficult time but giving anyone an ounce of comfort that day is a good reason to sing in our local church.”

The New Life Choir is now working on laying down their individual vocal tracks for their second CD. Their first, 2017’s “Songs of Faithful Praise,” is available for free download at www.thenewlifechoir.org.

“Doris was extremely excited to get our second CD recorded,” Wagner said.  “Unfortunately, Doris passed before we finished.” But with her brother “Chris’s guidance we are again recording in the choir loft,” hoping to have it out by the new year.

Staudt is engineering/producing and adding instrumentation from his home in Virginia. Dedicated to Dady, the CD, Wiley says, is meant to “ensure that Dori’s memory will live on.”

She notes the choir is now “looking forward to the next ten years. New members are always welcome. A musical background is not required, and you don’t have to know how to read music!”

About their journey, Wagner said, “As we celebrate our 10th anniversary of the New Life Choir, I am happy that we are able to bring the sound of beautiful voices back into the choir loft.”