MasterWorks Chorale to present the Colors of Christmas
Christmas music is as colorful, varied and traditional as the trees we decorate for the holidays, and just as treasured!
The 2017 Christmas concert by MasterWorks Chorale celebrates this festive musical spectrum with The Colors of Christmas! on Sunday, December 17, at 4:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church in Skaneateles.
The 60-voice regional choir will sing of green, silver, red and gold in Donald Fraser’s “This Christmastide,” white berries in the forest in the traditional Cornish “Holly Carol,” a bright flame in the Provençal “Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella,” sparkling jingle bells in Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” and dawn light on fresh snow in Eric Whitacre’s “Glow.”
A vibrant oil painting by Hieronymous Bosch, The Adoration of the Magi, inspired Gian Carlo Menotti’s one-act opera for television, Amahl and the Night Visitors, from which the choir sings the lilting “Shepherds’ Chorus.”
Christmas worship music will include Bruckner’s “Ave Maria,” a Schubert Gloria, and the rousing spiritual “Soon and Very Soon” by Andraé Crouch.
The program will premiere a Hanukkah song of peace, “Tikkun Olam,” cowritten by choir member Pam Freeman. And again this year, the audience will be invited to join in singing favorite Christmas carols.
The Colors of Christmas! is open to the public; age 18 and under admitted free. Visit masterworkscny.org for tickets and more information.
Now in its 52nd year of bringing “the sound of the human spirit—in harmony!” to Central New York, MasterWorks Chorale is conducted by music director Kip Coerper, ChM, and assistant director Carol Bryant, and accompanied by keyboardist Kristan Sheppard.
This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by CNY Arts. The 2017–18 season of MasterWorks Chorale is sponsored in part by the Skaneateles Area Arts Council (SKARTS).
