Guilford, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford’s 42nd Annual Christmas at Christ Church program is set for 8:00 p.m. on Friday, December 12, and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 13. Christ Church is at the corner of Rt. 5 south and Melendy Hill Road in the Algiers Village of Guilford.
This season’s theme for the program — “All My Heart Rejoices!” — is reflected in nine mostly familiar holiday song texts in unfamiliar arrangements by composers from the past five centuries, including Arthur Sullivan’s “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” and Charles Gounod’s “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Choral director Tom Baehr’s composing and arranging skills, featured in the repertoire of several recent Chamber Singers concerts, are represented in the version of “All My Heart This Night Rejoices!” being performed this weekend.
Since mid-September, Baehr has been rehearsing a dozen Guilford Chamber Singers. Many have sung with Friends of Music for a long time, and others are new to this annual “pick-up” group but sing with other choirs and choruses in the area. The home territory of the group ranges between Agawam, Mass. to the south and Chester, Vt. to the north.
Singers include Cynthia Karottki, Beverly Langeveld, and Janis Chaillou, soprano; Jeanne Austin, Laurie Schneski, and Joy Wallens-Penford, alto; Paul Cooper, Ted Lemon, and Peter Tracy, tenor; and Peter Abell, Peter Coursen, and Peter Nadolny, bass. A small ensemble of Gullford Chamber Players, led by Amy Cann, offers instrumental interludes to complement the vocal repertoire.
For his seasonal reading on the Christ Church program, Guilford’s Don McLean will reprise his popular rendition of Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” in honor of the author’s centennial year in 2014.
A handful of traditional carols sung by everyone will bring the program to its close.
The Friends of Music holiday boutique is stocked with several note card series, assorted CDs, and tote bags, plus warm sweatshirts to keep the cold winter away. Sales of these items help support Friends of Music’s core programs, which are offered on a donation basis, as well as its free community outreach programs for students and elders.
Door donations for Christmas at Christ Church programs are shared with the church Preservation Fund for maintenance of that historic structure, the first Episcopal Church in Vermont, which has not had a resident congregation since the early 1900s. For further information, contact the Friends of Music office at (802) 254-3600 or visit online at www.fomag.org.