AUBURN - Susan May wanted to fill Willard Chapel with music to make people feel better in a time of high gas prices, natural disasters and war.

The result was a collection of songs from the 1930s that she called “Music That Lifts Our Spirits.” She did just that for the guests at the chapel on Saturday night.

May noted that the performance date also happened to be the 76th anniversary of the stock market crash that plunged America into the Great Depression.

“I was wondering about the people who lived through the Depression, and how they made it,” she said.

Some of the music that was written during that time period reflected not only the despair people felt, but also the hope. May and her musical partner, Bosti Sidoti, specialize in music from the 1930s and 1940s at weddings, concerts and special events.

Sidoti had a simpler view of the night's concert.

“We're going to have some fun, some great music, and we'll raise a little money for the chapel,” he said shortly before going on.

Vera Carabajal, the wedding and events coordinator of the chapel, said the money raised from the concert would be used to finance the restoration of the stained-glass windows at the chapel, a project that is currently in progress. Although the Auburn Theological Seminary, of which the chapel was a part, closed its doors in 1939 after 10 years of struggling financially, the chapel continues to be a historic community treasure, she said.

The 15 musical numbers that made up the program started and ended with songs with cheerful titles, from “On the Sunny Side of the Street” to “Happy Days.” A warm chemistry between the singers projected the feelings of the songs into the appreciative audience of more than 100 people. May's smooth, soprano complimented Sidoti's rich baritone in a pleasant harmony.

May and Sidoti met by chance at a wedding in 1997.

“I was hired to play the organ,” May said, “and Bosti was hired to sing. We didn't know each other at the time. I asked him if he would like to form a duet, and he said ‘yes.'”

May is the vocal music teacher at Herman Avenue Elementary School in Auburn. She has performed with the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse and the Auburn Community Players. Sidoti, a pharmaceutical technician at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Syracuse, studied classical voice at the Neupauer School in Philadelphia, and has performed at theaters from Albany to San Diego.