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Retired opera singer George Powell has been composing music for the past two years and is looking forward to hearing it performed at the next meeting of the Mozart Club.

AIMEE DILGER/THE TIMES LEADER

Growing up in Wilkes-Barre during the Depression, George Powell didn’t come by a nickel very often.
Whenever he was lucky enough to have five cents, he remembered, “I’d hurry to the Salvation Army and buy a classical recording.”
As it turns out, that early affinity for music endured.
After decades singing with opera companies in Philadelphia and Pasadena, Powell is retired, living in Trucksville and, at 86, finally realizing his dream of writing compositions.
You’ll be able to hear some of his recent work if you attend the next program of The Mozart Club of Wilkes-Barre, set for 7:30 p.m. Monday at Grace Episcopal Church in Kingston.
Everyone with an interest in music is welcome, past club president Betty Porzuczek said, and should come prepared to enjoy themselves.
“The thing that impresses me the most about George’s compositions is that a man his age would start out on a new endeavor,” Porzuczek said. “Most people, when they get to be his age, they quit starting new things.”
For Powell, writing music, which he started doing three years ago, had been a long-cherished goal. He wanted to become a composer in his teens and moved to Philadelphia a week after graduating from GAR High School with that in mind, but he kept getting sidetracked into singing – everywhere from churches and synagogues to opera guilds.
Performing was always a part-time occupation, so he had to find other ways to make a living, but he didn’t mind.
One of his early day jobs was working in the stock department of a music company, where a customer might come in and say, “I heard something on the radio last night, and it went like this ….”
The manager would call for Powell, who could identify a Tchaikovsky concerto or Chopin etude after the customer had hummed a bar or two.
Later, when Powell was selling insurance to support his wife and two children, an arts-loving philanthropist offered to support his family for six months if he wanted to pursue music full time.
He turned down the offer.
“I talked it over with my wife, and we didn’t feel comfortable with the idea,” he said.
So Powell kept his day job and was grateful to employers who were generous with time off during concert season.
Today his scrapbook and his memory are filled with images from various performances, from the Gilbert and Sullivan that made people laugh, to the “Tosca” and “La Boheme” that made them cry.
“I had a music teacher tell me once, whatever you’re singing, whether it’s a love song or a hymn, really mean it,” Powell said.
He followed that advice, along with other tips on how to make his strong baritone/bass voice resonate.
If you listen to a recording of his voice, perhaps singing something from Georg Handel’s “Messiah” or Jerome Kern’s “Showboat,” you’ll likely be amazed by his ability to project.
But, about five years ago, Powell decided it was best to give up singing in public.
“I just don’t have the sustaining power anymore,” he said matter-of-factly.
On Monday evening, he may sing or play piano a bit, but mostly he will rely on three friends – a soloist, a pianist and a cellist — to bring his music to life.
One of his favorite compositions is a “Carmel By the Sea,” a piece he wrote in memory of his wife, Philadelphia native Mary Alma Powell, who died in 2003.
“She used to sit for hours on the beach and look at the ocean, just meditating,” he said.
As for himself, he felt drawn to a different part of nature.
“I was a mountain man,” he said with a chuckle.