Concert conjures holiday spirit

Sisters students from choir classes were among the "Magical Voices of Christmas." photo by Charlie Kanzig If any of the 400-plus members of Sunday's audience at the eighth annual Rotary Magical Voices of Christmas weren't in Christmas spirit before the show they must have left the Sisters High School auditorium humming a Christmas melody.

After a hearty "Merry Christmas" greeting from emcee Jim Craig, four members of the "Bells of Sunriver" played their bells to start the show.

To cap their performance Jane Mink, Jan Tuckerman, Jane Vakoc and Joyce Hornish were joined by bass clarinetist Larry Fraley and vocalist Bob Vogel in a moving rendition of "O, Holy Night."

Sisters Elementary School music teacher Debbie Schlatter then took the stage with about 30 students for three numbers, including "Angel's Lullaby," "Reindeer Rattle and Roll," and the jazzy "We Wish You a Swingin' Holiday."

The annual program is organized by the Sisters Rotary Club and sponsored financially by numerous local businesses.

Special guest Mark Beudert, a music instructor at both Oregon State and Portland State, wowed the crowd with his rich baritone voice in a stirring "Lord's Prayer." Later in the show he sang the African-American spiritual "There is a Balm in Gilead."

Beudert taught Tara MacSween, Sisters Middle and High School choir director, while she was a student at the University of Oregon.

MacSween and her husband Luke, who teaches vocal music at Bend Senior High School, filled out the rest of the program with their respective groups.

Tara MacSween directed a special choir, a product of the middle school's interim week in November, that sang three songs including "Christmas Medley," "Dona Nobis Pacem," and "Silver Bells."

MacSween's high school jazz choir took the stage next and shared "O, Come, O Come Emmanuel" as well as a complicated version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in 7/8 time.

The Bend Senior High School jazz choir presented six traditional Christmas carols before Santa Claus stole the stage to give the music programs at all four schools represented $500 each, courtesy of the Rotary Club.

The combined jazz choirs from Bend High and Sisters concluded the evening with the humorous finale "Throw the Yule Log on Uncle John" by P.D.Q. Bach.

On the way out everyone got a chance to sing a couple of carols in the commons under the direction of the Tara MacSween, which was proof that the magical voices had touched one and all.