02 Dec Telluride Choral Society: WinterSing 2024, “A Christmas Album Side A,” 12/13 & 12/15!
Performances of the Telluride Choral Society’s WinterSing 2024 take place Friday, December 13, 7:00 p.m and Sunday, December 15, 4:00 p.m. at Christ Church. Tickets are $20 for adults; $10 for children at the door.
In Telluride and around the world certain songs make up the soundtrack of December, evoking images of Jack Frost nipping at your nose and the sound of sleigh bells ringing.
The 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 season is also 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, whose evolution as a cultural phenomenon is reflected in those sounds.
As Christmas became more secular, spiritual songs were largely supplanted by chestnuts such as Rudolph, sleigh bells ring (are you listening?). And if you scan that list, guess who wrote the biggest Christmas hits? Answer: ironically, Jewish composers such as Irving Berlin (“White Christmas”); Mel Torme (“The Christmas Song”); and Felix Bernard (“Winter Wonderland’), etc. Fact is we live in multicultural times when the blending and mixing of peoples and traditions is inevitable – and that is a good thing, especially in the face of global socio-cultural trends to the contrary.
Locally, Christmas music means the Telluride Choral Society’s WinterSing, one of the premier opening events of the holiday season, now under the able direction of Hal Adler with help for the young ones from Tagen Kaestner.
The theme of WinterSing 2024? “A Christmas Album, Side A,” which introduces more contemporary composers – plus a very special Ave Maria:
“Not to be confused with deservedly famous Schubert Ave Maria, Franz Biebl (1906-2001) wrote this very different setting in 1958. Biebl’s Ave Maria quickly became a relative standard in the choral repertoire, but its popularity skyrocketed once Chanticleer made it a part of their Christmas Holiday programs. It’s a special piece; the gentle folding and flowing of the double chorus lines move us into a space of peaceful serenity, which is then lifted by the ascending and inspiring last third of the piece. I’ve always believed the heart-opening Amen at the end of this piece is one of the most beautiful ever written,” Hal explains.
This year includes an candlelight audience singalong of several Christmas Carols
The following are the singers who guaranteed will make our spirits brighter:
CHORALE
Alison James
Andrew Molloy
Andrew Murphy
Anna Rose Leff
Beth Barr
Cari Galbraith
Colby Morrison
Crisanne Schworn
Dalen Stevens
Ginny Fraser
Joanna Adler
John Dickinson
Karla Brown
Katherine Semler
Leo McNamara
Maria Morrish
Megan Murphy
Nancy Landau
Rachel Brand
Tagen Kaestner
CHORISTERS
Abby Daughters
Kinsey Koenig
Simon Guest
Nora Ogren
Avaleen Davis
Hayes Margare
BIEBL CAMPERS
Due to the double chorus arrangement and our need for additional voices, TCS took a new approach to recruiting singers for the Ave Maria:
Billi Taylor
Cynthia Wyszynski
Dylan Adler
Eileen Burns
Lance Waring
Peter Haas
Sarah Dockray
Susan Ensor
Tuck Gillett
Will Thompson
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