NATCHEZ — Heavenly sounds will fill St. Mary Basilica tonight when the Carlow Choir performs.

The choir, made up of over 150 members from Mississippi and Louisiana, will put on a free concert beginning at 5 p.m. at the downtown church.

The choir was formed just a few years ago out of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The choir’s director, John DeChairo, said he was working with a church in Biloxi and wanted to do something that would take the focus away from the hurricane.

So, he gathered members from the Biloxi church and members from a church in Hattiesburg, where he was the music minister and performed a Christmas concert.

DeChairo said the members of the choir were so moved by that first performance that they wanted to continue to perform together.

“The choir thinks of this as their ministry,” he said. “This is their way of sharing the gospel.”

The group has continued to perform despite DeChairo’s move from Hattiesburg, where he was a music professor at the University of Southern Mississippi to Alexandria, La. where he took a similar position at LSUA.

The choir didn’t only survive, it grew, DeChairo said. He now has two groups of singers that he works with weekly — one in Alexandria and one in Hattiesburg.

“It is four hours for me each Monday to rehearse in Hattiesburg, but as long as they want to continue, I will too,” he said.

The group’s desire to spread the message of the Bible took them on a tour of Italy that included singing for Pope Benedict XVI in October.

DeChairo described the music the choir sings as “sacred anthems.” He said the songs are not specific to one denomination and neither are the choirs members.

“We have members from all different faiths in the choir,” he said. “They all just want to share the gospel”

The songs do have one thing in common, DeChair said. They are all based on scripture.

“If you can read it in the gospel, we sing it,” he said. “The choir, in a way, is God’s voice on earth.”