BRATTLEBORO — Friends of Music at Guilford presents its 40th annual Community Messiah Sing on Saturday, Dec. 4, at 1 p.m.
The event takes place at Centre Congregational Church at 193 Main St., which has co-sponsored the event since 1980. This seasonal program provides an opportunity for everyone to join in singing the Christmas choruses and a few choruses from later sections of Handel's Messiah. Friends of Music provides vocal soloists for the arias, a trumpeter, an organist, and a conductor.
The Sing has always been free of charge to participating singers and other fans of the music who come only to listen, with donations encouraged to help cover the event's expenses. Since 2007, however, all door donations have been divided equally between the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center and Morningside Shelter, two local agencies serving the homeless.
Again this season, the Drop In Center will park its van at the church from about noon to 4 p.m. on the day of the Sing, to receive donations of food and new, unwrapped toys; winter outerwear, longjohns, and warm socks; blankets, towels, and sleeping bags; as well as cash from the general public shopping during Brattleboro's Holly Days weekend.
Soloists include two veterans and two newcomers to the event: Evelyn McLean, alto, sang the soprano arias at our first Sing in 1971 and for the next 19 seasons, then joined the roster as alto soloist in 1995-97 and again in 2007. She also stepped into the role unexpectedly in 2003, when a snowstorm prevented the advertised soloist from getting to Brattleboro. Her 26th appearance this season is a Sing record that has little chance of being surpassed.
Larrimore Crockett, bass, debuted at this event in 1982 and performed for six of the next eight years, then three times more recently. New to the Sing are Amy Green, soprano, featured in Friends of Music's “Telephone Operas” program in 2009 and many other regional music theater productions, and John Coons, a tenor from Portland, Maine, and Boston who recently earned his Master's in Voice Performance from the University of Southern Maine and has performed a wide variety of operatic roles for many New England-based companies.
Returning as participants for another year are trumpet soloist Charlie Schneeweis, skilled in many musical genres, and organist William McKim, playing for a 26th season with the Sing. Conductor Anthony Speranza is leading the event for a 14th season, having served in an unbroken string of years from 1989 through 2001.
Singers can bring their own score or borrow one at the door; a few copies are also for sale at the event, and a supply is available for purchase in advance at Maple Leaf Music, 23 Elliot St., Brattleboro. Bottled water is also available at the door; no food or drink other than water is allowed in the sanctuary.
For further information, contact the Friends of Music office at 802-254-3600, or visit online at www.fomag.org.
Friends of Music's annual Christmas at Christ Church program, entitled “Warm Holiday Wishes,” follows on Friday and Saturday, December 10 and 11, at the historic church on Route 5 in Guilford.
This musical journey through warmer climes moves west from Cuba and Costa Rica to the Philippines and Hawaii, on to Australia, New Zealand and Papua; Don McLean reads Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory, and a few carols are shared with the audience.
These concerts are also offered free of charge, with door donations benefitting equally Friends of Music and the Christ Church Restoration Fund.