GUILFORD — Friends of Music's 41st Annual Christmas at Christ Church program is set for 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 13, and 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 15.
“Brightest and Best: Music to Welcome the Holy Child” is this season's theme for the program. Since mid-September, Tom Baehr has been conducting rehearsals with 16 Guilford Chamber singers. Many have sung with Friends of Music for a long time, and others are new to this annual “pick-up” group but sing with other choirs and choruses in the area.
Singers include sopranos Maisie Crowther, Christina Gibbons, Jody Graves, and Sharry J. Manning; altos Nancy Barber, Jenny Holan, Beth McKinney, and Joy Wallens-Penford; tenors Nancy Anderson, Jeanne Austin, Paul Cooper, and Peter Tracy; and basses Peter Abell, Orion Barber, Peter Nadolny, and Ijod Schroeder.
The program introit is “A Christmas Round,” declaring the holy birth in Latin. The repertoire otherwise includes a version of the title tune “Brightest and Best” from Jean Ritchie's family songbook, as arranged by Brattleboro's Peter Amidon.
Traditional English and German holiday gems set anew by modern composer-arrangers include “There Is No Rose of Such Virtue,” (arr. Stephen Caracciolo); “Coventry Carol” (arr. Jay Rouse); and “Still, Still, Still” (arr. Luc Jakobs).
Also featured are “As on the Night” by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” (“A Rose Has Sprung Up”) by Melchior Vulpius (1615), a recent setting of the “Jesu Parvule” text by Tony Stoneburner and Tim Blickhan, and two 14th century texts set to music by the program's conductor, Tom Baehr: “Childing of a Maiden Bright” and “On the Birthday of the Lord.”
Of special note is the inclusion of “In a Far Judean City,” by Abbie Burt Betinis, grand-niece of last season's featured holiday composer, Alfred Burt, who died in 1954. Abbie, born in 1980, has taken up the Burt Family tradition of penning a new carol each season. The program finale is a lively Trinidadian carol: “The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy.”
For his seasonal reading on the Christ Church program, Guilford's Don McLean interprets his mother's story, “C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S Spells Mother.” This reading continues the tribute to Jean Stewart McLean on the 50th anniversary of her death.
A few Guilford Chamber Players, led by Amy Cann, offer instrumental interludes to augment the choral selections and story. A handful of traditional carols sung by everyone will close the program.
The Friends of Music holiday boutique is stocked with 2014 art calendars featuring paintings and prints of Guilford and nearby locales that have appeared on recent program books and posters, as well as several card series, assorted CDs and tote bags, and warm sweatshirts to keep the cold winter at bay.
Signed copies of “Sparks: The Collected Writing of Jean Stewart McLean” by Don McLean will be available. Sales of these items help support Friends of Music's core programs, which are offered on a donation basis, as well as its free community outreach programs for students and elders.
Door donations for Christmas at Christ Church programs are shared with the church Preservation Fund for maintenance of that historic structure, which has not had a resident congregation since the early 1900s.