A Stately All Souls ‘Requiem’ : A prominent music director will guide a local church ensemble in a performance of Cherubini’s dramatic work.

Paul Salamunovich has led choral groups of virtually every stripe, from his 27 years on the faculty of Loyola Marymount University to his more recent work as music director for the L. A. Master Chorale. For him, the goal has always been the same.

“I get the same charge, and the same responsibility, and the same satisfaction in all the situations,” said Salamunovich, now in his third season with the L. A. Master Chorale. “It’s the music that you want to accomplish. And the joy of having those who perform with you have this same experience makes it quite exciting.”

This perhaps explains his decision to re-create Luigi Cherubini’s dramatic “Requiem in C Minor”--a piece of music rarely performed outside concert halls--with the choir of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church at a special service Tuesday night. Salamunovich has been music director of the North Hollywood church’s vocal ensemble for 45 years, coaching the 75 voices of the all-volunteer group.

“I’m not going to settle for less just because they’re volunteers,” he said. “I will stretch them and take them as far as they can go, and it gets pretty doggone close to a professional choir.”

In recent years, he has recruited three from the ensemble into the L. A. Master Chorale: Lesley Leighton, James Drollinger and Pam Lefko.

The St. Charles choir will perform more than half of Cherubini’s “Requiem” as part of the church’s All Souls Day service, which honors the dead. Organ accompaniment will be by William Beck. Admission is free.

Beethoven believed Cherubini to be “one of the greatest dramatic composers,” Salamunovich said. Cherubini completed “Requiem” in 1817.

“Most great composers have always been inspired by the dramatic text of the Requiem Mass to compose sometimes their greatest work,” Salamunovich said. “We know that to be true of Mozart and Verdi. Beethoven never wrote one. He said if he did, he would have modeled it after that of Cherubini’s. He liked that style.

“It’s not a showy piece. It’s very spiritual.”

The St. Charles choir has been invited to perform the entire Cherubini work in February at an American Chorale Directors Assn. convention in Sacramento. It’s an honor that represents unusual effort and dedication from an ensemble that includes a Tony Award-winning performer, an orthopedic surgeon, a prosecutor, a banking executive, teachers and homemakers.

Some members travel the weekly rehearsals and performances in North Hollywood from as far away as Ventura and San Pedro. “For these people, this is recreation,” Salamunovich said. “It is a very cerebral, fulfilling, spiritual recreation.”

Ellen Whelan of Glendale added her voice to the choir in 1969. “He brings out in us what we never thought we could do,” said Whelan, 44. “I am not a singer. I never do anything on my own. I’m not a soloist. Very few in the choir could be. But when you put all of us together with that kind of a talent directing you and drawing it from you, it happens. It’s a magnificent experience.”

Salamunovich said members of the choir enjoyed the benefits of music programs a generation ago that, to his dismay, no longer exist in the public school system. It’s a cultural deficit, he said, that has a social impact beyond the arts.

“Learning to love classical music makes kids better people, particularly if they are performers in the school, because it gives them a feeling of pride and goodness,” he said. “When they do that, that reflects to other people.”

Where and When What: St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church Choir, performing Luigi Cherubini’s “Requiem in C Minor.” Location: St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, 10828 Moorpark St., North Hollywood. Hours: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Price: Free. Call: (818) 766-3838.