WinterSing: “Light of the Season,” 12/13 & 12/15!

04 Dec WinterSing: “Light of the Season,” 12/13 & 12/15!

Telluride Choral Society WinterSing 2019 concerts take place Friday, December 13, 7 p.m., and Sunday, December 15, 4 p.m. at Christ Church. Tickets are $20/adults and $10/students. They are available at the door. For more information, please call (970) 729-0082.

Some quake in anticipation; others shiver with angst and cold. Whichever your camp, however, in Telluride, as all over America, you own it. In this country, Christmas belongs to everyone, not just Christians, who celebrate the birth stories about Christ, but also Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, even atheists.

The secular holiday is Chipmunks and Charlie Brown, Grinches and Scrooges. It is Rudolph and giant conifers, baked ham and chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and one too many tipples of eggnog. The holiday season is classic movies such as “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”

But most of all, Christmas is music. Perhaps no other holiday in the world is more closely associated with music than Christmas. Locally, Christmas music means the Telluride Choral Society’s WinterSing, one of the premier events of the all-encompassing holiday season.

This year’s WinterSing concert, #26, brings together the lights twinkling around town and the soundtrack of the season, which plays in our hearts.

Director Rhonda Muckerman explains:

“This year, we celebrate the ‘Light of the Season,’ a multi-faceted presentation of light in all forms. Beginning with our first selection ‘Illumina Le Tenebre,’ composed in the 13th century by St. Francis of Assisi, a prayer which calls us to ‘cast your light into the darkness of my heart.’”

The Telluride community, including guests, is invited to enjoy the innocent beauty and delight of the youngest members of the Choral Society, the Choristers, as they celebrate the light of winter nights with lullabies, even some jazz.

Singing in three-part harmony, the teen group, OmniVoce, is scheduled to begin with a modern, mixed-meter setting of “Sanctus” and then fast froward to the Sixties to perform the Beatles’ anthem “Let It Be.”

In keeping with a Choral Society’s tradition, the Telluride Chorale also brings beams of light from various cultures, from the Congo in Africa in Todd Smith’s setting of “Noel” to Neil Ginsberg’s Hebrew setting of the “Hine Ma Tov” celebrating the goodness of “brethren living together.”

The crown jewel of the evening is Edward Elgar’s choral setting of “Lux Aeterna” from the Enigma Variations. It is performed in eight parts by the Telluride Chamber Singers.

Let there be light – and brightly shining voices.

Amen.