'Churchless church choir' a portal to heavenly music

With 60 copies of sheet music in hand and no idea who or how many people might show up, 34-year-old Joel Sindelar optimistically hauled his keyboard and guitar in on his ''modified mountain bike" for the first rehearsal of his Churchless Church Choir on March 6.

The rehearsal was to be held in an out-of-the-way yellow building on Danforth Street in Jamaica Plain called Spontaneous Celebrations.

''I personally feel kind of spiritually confined in a church," said Sindelar, who is also the director of the Loose Canon Chorale at St. John's Episcopal Church in JP. ''I had this feeling that there are a lot of people who don't necessarily go to church and would like to sing."

By the end of rehearsal, which lasted about an hour and a half, 12 singers had walked through the door -- enough for Sindelar to call the first run a success.

''I had no idea if anyone would have sung before or anything, but everyone was holding a pitch," he said after rehearsal.

For Christine Tellez, a 20-year-old student at Simmons College, the group seemed like ''a laid-back way to sing choir songs again."

Tellez sang in her school chorus at age 13, and while she does not attend church, she said she doesn't care what she's singing, just as long as she gets to sing.

The selection ranges from traditional hymns found in a church songbook to Janis Joplin's ''Mercedes Benz."

Nicole Pelletier, a 31-year-old resident of Jamaica Plain, sang in an a cappella group at Hampshire College.

Pelletier said although she hasn't sung in a long time, she is looking to get back into the choral world. ''I'm just looking for a community chorus that's the right fit," she said.

Although Pelletier is not religious, she said the songs and the venue would not dissuade her from joining the group, which she plans to stick with.

As the singers began to file out the door, carrying their photocopied music, Elizabeth Venman, a 17-year-old high school senior from Brookline, lingered to belt out some lines from some favorite church songs of her past. She hoped Sindelar would recognize the notes and find the music for their next rehearsal.

With a promise to keep his eyes open, Sindelar then sent Venman on her way and began to pack up his instruments, ready to secure them to the wooden plank on the back of his bike.

Directing the choir, as well as teaching private music and math lessons, is how Sindelar makes a living, though he said he took February off because it was too cold to travel by bike.

''I like voices in harmony because they can tune better than most instruments," said Sindelar, who received a bachelor's degree in molecular biology from MIT. ''You can get really beautiful sounds out of a choir that you can't get out of a piano."

While at MIT, Sindelar joined a chorus, and a performance of Bach's ''St. Matthew Passion" changed his career plans. ''The whole thing was just so beautiful," he said. ''I just couldn't stand it."

Five years after graduating from MIT, Sindelar went for his master's degree in choral conducting at the New England Conservatory, which he received in 2001.

With his latest venture, Sindelar said he will let the churchless church choir go wherever the group takes it.

His ideal would be a group of about 50 singers rehearsing each Sunday morning, with spectators free to dance.

''As an audience member, I always feel too still. My ideal would be to have people free to move if the music moves or to sit if it didn't," he said.

The choir will hold rehearsals every Sunday at 10 a.m., and its debut performance will be at Spontaneous Celebrations' Wake Up the Earth Festival on May 7.