By Melodie Caruso
Choirs around the city are bringing music to the ears of those ready to celebrate the magic of the holiday season and the word of God.
“The concerts are magical,” says Mary Egan, publicity director for the Canadian Centennial Choir.
“It is not about hitting the right notes. It is about meeting the music.”
Egan says that this year’s show, Christmas Through the Ages, was truly unique, taking the audience through a musical history.
The choir’s two-hour show took to the stage at Parkdale United Church on Dec. 3.
Their program included 23 carefully selected historical and modern pieces.
“We featured pieces from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque and more contemporary selections,” Egan says.
The medieval Gregorian chant and Handel’s Messiah were just a few selections from this year’s show, which the choir director promised “would be a spirit enhancer for everyone.”
The Canadian Centennial Choir was formed in 1967. Approximately 60 to 70 voices fill the choir at any given time, with their ages ranging from 18 to, as Egan politely explains, “the sky as the limit.”
The not-for-profit community choir has performed live concerts in Ottawa and elsewhere in the region.
It often sings famous compositions, but also takes on material from local composers.
Their repertoire for performing versatile choral, masterworks, folk and carols has drawn a following to their shows.
The Christmas concert is one of the biggest shows of the year. Preparation for the concert began in October, with rehearsals each week.
Christmas Through the Ages was programmed by the choir’s music director, James Caswell, who has an extensive record of musical accolades.
For this particular performance, he has included musician Stephen Candow, “scholar of the organ,” to perform with the choir. Two violinists will also be accompanying him in the choir’s performance of Handel’s Messiah.
Egan says the performance, held at the Dominion-Chalmers United Church on Dec. 18, includes four interactive carols with the audience invited to sing along.
Ruth Bymerson, a choir member for 43 years, says the Dominion-Chalmers choir has been together since the church’s inception in 1925.
The choir’s ten regular members will be accompanied by members of the University of Ottawa student choir, as well as Bishop Hamilton’s Children’s choir.
The performance will include the traditional nine lesson cards. Dominion-Chalmers music director, Scott Auchinteck says, “there will be reading of the Christmas lessons and the carols will fit right in.”
Some of the songs on the program are the Advent Carol, A Maiden Most Gentile, and Do You Hear What I Hear?
The choir will be accompanied by an organ, which was a memorial to war veterans given to the church in 1965.
“A lot of people come to hear the organ,” Bymerson says. “It is a special part of the show.”
For Bymerson, the performances of Christmas choirs are important to a sanctuaries’ celebration of the holiday season. She hopes the holiday show will inspire youth with the beauty and rhythm of choral music.
“It used to be the highlight of my week to go and hear the church choir, hopefully the show will do that for others,” she says.