Messmers' performance in Mount Prospect an emotional experience

Wayne and Kathleen Messmer headlined last week's concert of the Mount Prospect Community Band, as they have done for the last 10 years.

They drew hundreds of listeners, who gathered on their lawn chairs around the Veterans Memorial Band Shell in Mount Prospect for the second of the band's seven Monday evening summer concerts.

The performance packed powerful emotions.

Best known for his rendition of the national anthem for the Cubs, Bears and the Chicago Wolves, Wayne Messmer opened the concert with his familiar patriotic delivery.

However, combining with his wife - a member of the Melodeers Chorus, named the 2009 Sweet Adelaide International champions- he performed Broadway hits with the band, including favorites from the "Music Man," "King & I" and "Oklahoma."

Their medley from "Man of La Mancha" brought the crowd in Lions Park to a hush.

Messmer launched into its powerful songs, including the show's title number and the lilting "Dulcinea," before reaching his stride with "The Impossible Dream," which he describes as his "all-time, personal favorite."

He described how "Man of La Mancha" was the first professional show he had ever seen, and how his high school band director, John Gelsomino, had taken him.

"He was my mentor, my inspiration," says Messmer of his former teacher who passed away in Riverside earlier this month. "He was the guy who gave me the encouragement to go on in music."

Little did Messmer or his teacher know of the importance the show would hold for him later in his life. Kathleen Messmer had the task of describing it, telling the audience how it had been 15 years since her husband had been shot in the throat during a mugging on the West Side of Chicago.

"We thought he'd lost his life, let alone his voice," Messmer said.

The couple lived in Mount Prospect at the time, and through the help of neighbors and the community, Messmer pulled through, and miraculously regained his strong baritone voice.

"He dreamed the impossible dream," she said.

Well, not exactly. Wayne Messmer, who now lives in Glenview, recalls how it was his wife who first dreamed it.

"I remember her saying, 'Let's not accept anything less than a complete recovery,'" he says, adding that at the time he thought that was impossible.

"That was the last thing I would have ever expected," he says, "to be able to sing like that again."

Judging by last week's performance, when Messmer and his wife sang as many songs as are in a full Broadway musical, all in less than 90 minutes, and drew a standing ovation at the end, it appears he has.