By SUZANNE MOORE
PERU — It was a true setting to find true love.
Julie and Dennis Frisbie met at a wedding rehearsal — she was soloist, he was organist.
"The groom and the bride were late," said Dennis. "To kill time, I started playing the piano."
And so Julie sang.
"I was enamored of her singing and loved her 'Ave Maria,'" Dennis said.
"Romance blossomed," Julie said.
Julie will perform "Ave Maria" at the first Peru Coffeehouse of the season Oct. 16, with Dennis as accompanist at the grand piano in the church Fellowship Hall.
Their program will reflect their all-encompassing love of music, with jazz, blues, some classical numbers.
Broadway will include "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables," "Music of the Night" from "Phantom of the Opera."
Julie will sing a song or two from "Wicked."
"And how can you do a song from 'Wicked' without 'Over the Rainbow?'" she laughed.
Also on the program will be a few contemporary Christian pieces, including "Refiner's Fire" and "Above All."
STREISAND MEDLEY
Most numbers are arrangements by Dennis, who studied music at Oral Roberts University, majoring in pipe organ, and played keyboard with the U.S. Air Force Band.
He has a passion for the old songs, and the expected coffeehouse audience will be mostly an older crowd, he said, so on the program will be a few favorites each from the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s.
"Hopefully, we'll touch people no matter what age they are," he said.
A bit newer will be a medley of Barbra Streisand tunes.
"Growing up in the '60s as I did, you've got to be a Streisand wannabe," Julie said.
She is also a child of New York City, where she was introduced to opera and ballet at a young age and where, she said, "my mother would go around the house singing and instilled a love of music in me."
She majored in voice at Crane School of Music and taught music for a time becoming a registered nurse.
Julie's natural voice is soprano, but her range is broad.
"Like Jim Neighbors," she said, chuckling, "my singing voice is not the same as my speaking voice."
SINGING NURSE
The Frisbies have been married 19 years now.
Dennis teaches music at Chazy Central School. He is organist at Peru Community Church while Julie sings in the choir; Dennis plays for community theater throughout the area, and Julie sings in different shows.
Dennis gives private piano lessons and also accompanies young people performing solos for such competitions as All County; he felt honored a few years back to conduct the Area All State Women's Chorus.
Dennis first sat at a piano as accompanist as a junior-high student; he has been a church organist for 30-some years.
"It seemed like God always needed an organist, and there (Dennis) was," Julie said.
On the cardiac floor at CVPH Medical Center, Julie can be found singing or humming to her patients.
"Just to take their mind off what's going on in their life — bring love and happiness to them," she said. "To me, that's what a concert is all about, too."
E-mail Suzanne Moore at: smoore@pressrepublican.com
