40 years of singing has been their choral commitment

Written by Janelle Gelfand

CINCINNATI — Sally Harper and Bob Lucero have sung in the May
Festival Chorus for 40 years – a record. Both were born in the
month of May. And both are cancer survivors.

They each learned they had cancer while singing with the chorus.
After surgery and treatment, they each returned to sing as soon as
they could.

The May Festival is their “second family,” they said backstage
recently at Music Hall.

“There is something about music that is health-giving. The May
Festival, that’s part of my life. It’s my second life. Coming back
to the festival was a big incentive,” said Lucero, who suffered a
seizure because of a brain tumor during a 2005 Valentine’s Day
concert with the Cincinnati Pops.

But by May, he was singing again for the annual festival.

Harper learned she had breast cancer during the 2001 May
Festival. In October – exactly one month after 9/11 – the chorus
performed Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” in Carnegie Hall. She
had to be there.

“I got special dispensation from my doctor to go and sing that
concert,” Harper said. “The ash was still everywhere in New York.
It was so memorable. It just took your breath away.”