Sisters Chorale to offer free holiday concerts

Last year there were two separate performing choirs in Sisters. This year, there is one really big one.

The Sisters Community Choir, with a history going back nearly 20 years, has joined forces with the more recently established High Desert Chorale to become the Sisters Chorale. Under the direction of Irene Liden, the combined choir of 58 singers will present its inaugural performances on two different dates this coming weekend.

The chorale will perform on Friday evening, December 18, at 7 p.m. and again on Sunday afternoon, December 20, at 2:30 p.m. The scheduling plan is designed to offer Sisters concertgoers the opportunity to enjoy a special Sisters performance by the Gospel Choir of the Cascades on Saturday evening (see related story, page 23).

The chorale's seasonal presentation will have a distinctly international flavor this year. In addition to English, selections will be offered in Spanish and Latin. Also, portions of the "Messiah," by renowned German composer Georg Frederich Handel, will be featured.

When Handel created the Messiah in 1742, he was a member of the court of George I, King of England. King George was actually German and the first English monarch of the Hannoverian line. Handel's association with the future king began when both lived in Hannover, Germany. Curiously, Handel's Messiah was first performed in Dublin, Ireland, and has always been performed in English.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of Handel's birth. Another Sisters choir, the Church of the Transfiguration Choir, traveled to Halle, Germany - Handel's birthplace - earlier this year to perform the Messiah as part of a 400-member international choir celebrating the event. Several members of the Sisters chorale participated in that performance and will be singing in the concerts this weekend.

The chorale's performance is being billed as Sisters' first Messiah sing-along, and audience members are invited to participate and bring Messiah scores if they have them. The selections to be performed are the choruses from movements 4, 9, 17 and 44.

Also to be performed (in English) is the 16th-century French carol, "Ding Dong." Originally a secular dance tune, it has become a traditional holiday Noel. Also on the bill is "Sleigh Bells," which is actually a montage of three songs, including "Sleigh Ride," by Leroy Anderson, "Button Up Your Overcoat," by Ray Henderson, and "Winter Wonderland," written by Felix Bernard in 1934, when he saw New York's Central Park covered in snow.

"Carol of the Bells" is a Ukrainian bell carol first performed by students at Kiev University in 1916. The "Coventry Carol" dates to 1534 in England and was part of a mystery play telling the story of Christmas. This particular carol laments King Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents and is the only surviving portion of that play.

The term "carol" is middle-English and originally described dance songs and festival processions as far back as the 12th century. Another English carol, "On Christmas Night," will be familiar to many.

Rounding out the bill is "O Holy Night," "Ya Viene la Vieja," a traditional Spanish carol, and the Latin-language "Videntes Stellam," by Francis Poulenc. Poulenc was an avante-guarde French composer, considered by some to be one of the greatest choral and religious composers of the 20th century.

As an added bonus, the Sisters High Desert Bell Choir, under the direction of Lola Knox, will perform traditional bell carols and a Nutcracker medley.

Because of the growth in the number of singers, the Sisters chorale has outgrown its previous venues; and concerts this season will be presented at Sisters Community Church, located on the McKenzie Highway, just east of Sisters Middle School. The concerts are free to all, and cookies and refreshments will be served.

The Sisters chorale is an all-volunteer, non-audition choir open to all singers of all ages. For more information, contact Irene Liden at 549-1037 or [email protected]