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Services Held for Longtime Minnehaha Conductor Harry Opel
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (January 9, 2002) - Services were held at 4 p.m. today at Salem Covenant
Church in New Brighton for longtime Minnehaha Academy music teacher and choral conductor Harry P. Opel, who died January 2 of complications from a recent stroke.
His wife, Bonnevieve, an organ and piano teacher at the school for 50 years, had died just nine days earlier. The Opels were members of First Covenant Church for years, but had become members at Salem Covenant in recent years.
The 80-year-old Opel taught 38 years at Minnehaha, a school sponsored by the Northwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church, before retiring in 1985. He taught chemistry, physics and mathematics at the school, but his musical work was considered most significant. The Harry P. Opel Choral Room will be part of the school's new 600-seat chapel and fine
arts center that is expected to be completed this year.
A World War II veteran and a choir director at First Covenant Church, St. Paul, for 40 years, Opel's rich voice was also well known in local music circles. He sang with the Minnesota
Orchestra as a bass soloist, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
On March 9, current and former Minnehaha Academy singers will present a concert at 7 p.m. at First Covenant Church in Minneapolis. Proceeds from concert ticket sales and pledges will help finance the renewal and dedication of the choral facilities at Minnehaha Academy.
For more information about the school or the concert, call 612-728-7722.
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