Two of the Tri-State Region's earliest Christmas traditions each year are presented by Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG), now in its 49th concert season.
The Community Messiah Sing will take place on the first Saturday in December, which this year is Dec. 6, beginning at 1 p.m. And the Christmas at Christ Church program follows on Friday, Dec. 12, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 13, at 4 p.m.
The sanctuary of Brattleboro's Centre Congregational Church is expected to be filled to the brim, upstairs and down, with more than 200 singers clutching a copy of the vocal score for Handel's “Messiah.”
Terry Larsen will take the podium for an eighth season, while organist David Neiweem, a professor of music and official college organist at the University of Vermont, is performing with FOMAG for the first time.
The entire Christmas section, plus a few popular later numbers, are to feature this year's soloists: Junko Watanabe, soprano; Justina Golden, mezzo soprano; Christopher Wesolowski, tenor; and Cailin Marcel Manson, baritone.
Since 2007, the sing has been a benefit for the homeless at holiday time. All door donations, more than $12,500 to date, are divided between the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center and the Morningside Shelter.
The Drop In Center's van outside Centre Church that afternoon will collect cash from downtown shoppers, as well as canned goods, winter outerwear, and blankets, together with unwrapped, new toys from the public and sing participants.
Annual Christmas church concert
Less than a week later, the more austere setting of a country church, now open only for special events, welcomes a hundred or more folks at each of two performances of this year's 42nd annual Christmas at Christ Church celebration.
This historic building is located at the corner of Route 5 south and Melendy Hill Rd., in the Algiers village of Guilford, just over a mile from Exit 1 off Interstate 91. As always, donations collected at the door are shared with the church preservation committee to cover the cost of heat and structural maintenance.
This season's theme - “All My Heart Rejoices!” - is reflected in nine mostly familiar holiday song texts in not-so-familiar arrangements by composers from the past five centuries, including Arthur Sullivan and Charles Gounod.
The vocal program is led by Tom Baehr and performed by the Guilford Chamber Singers, an 11-voice group this season, many of whom perform with other choirs and choruses. A trio of Gullford Chamber Players, led by Amy Cann, offers instrumental selections to complement the vocal repertoire.
As he has done almost every season, Don McLean, a Friends of Music founder and the organization's administrator for its first four decades, will read a classic holiday story.
In honor of Dylan Thomas's centennial year in 2014, McLean will reprise his popular rendition of Thomas's “A Child's Christmas in Wales."
A short carol sing with everyone ends the hour-long gathering, and the church's bell is rung to welcome in the holiday season as everyone heads away into the night.