GUILFORD — Friends of Music at Guilford, now in its 54th concert season, is seeking additional voices for its Chamber Singers, who have been featured in their holiday concert at historic Christ Church for nearly five decades.
Directed by Tom Baehr for an eighth year, the group has openings in all sections, especially tenors, for singers with previous experience. The ensemble has received high praise for its musicianship under Baehr's leadership.
For this year's program, “An Olde New England Christmas,” the Chamber Singers will perform a cappella settings by William Billings, Supply Belcher, Charles Ives, Oliver Shaw, and Oliver Holden.
Most of these composers are from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and offer charming and affecting arrangements of familiar and not-so-familiar carols of the period, according to a news release. Several feature tenors sharing the melody with sopranos.
Other elements of this annual event include Don McLean's dramatic reading of a holiday story, instrumental interludes by a few Guilford Chamber Players, and a short carol sing with everyone.
Performances are on Friday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 14, at 4 p.m. Christ Church, which hasn't had a resident congregation since the late 1800s, is at the junction of Route 5 and Melendy Hill Road in the Algiers village of Guilford, about a mile and a half south of Exit 1 off Interstate 91.
Chamber Singers rehearsals are on Mondays and occasional Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m., starting Sept. 9, location TBD.
To learn more, contact Tom Baehr at 802-387-2796 or tombaehr@myfairpoint.net, or the Friends of Music at Guilford office at 802-254-3600 or office@fomag.org.