Avalon Singers Celebrate the Holidays with Music

Based out of the Chateauguay Valley, the Avalon Singers will take the stage at a local church this coming Saturday for their annual Christmas concert.

On Saturday, December 19th, the Avalon Singers will be hosting a Christmas concert at the St. Malachie Church on Roy Street in Ormstown. The group is made up of twenty-some voices dedicated to bringing works from the classical vocal repertoire to the public. Since the group’s inception in 1999, it has been directed by Pamela Selkirk and has performed an array of works ranging from the anonymous to all the great composers of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, on occasion even touching upon romantic, operatic and 20th century works. Formally of the Madrigal Choir, former professional singer Selkirk works in Montreal and in the Chateauguay Valley as a singer and voice teacher. The group, which practices twice a week at Chateauguay Valley Regional High School in Ormstown, puts on two shows a year—one during the holidays, and another in the spring.

This year, the choir will present two uplifting works by the German composers, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Johann Sebastian Bach. Mendelssohn, a composer of the early Romantic period, has been described as one of the greatest child prodigies in Western music. His Gloria, which the choir will perform in the first half of the program, was composed when he was still in his teenage years. His Gloria is in turns rousing and beautifully melodic, reflecting the Romantic period in which it was written. Mendelssohn was deeply influenced by Bach and it is largely due to him that, in the early eighteenth century, there was a revival of interest in Bach's music.

In the second half of the program the choir will perform choruses and recitatives from Bach's Christmas Oratorio, a long-time favourite of the holiday season. The Oratorio is an intimate and jubilant recounting of the nativity story, originally written to be performed over six days during the 1734-1735 Christmas season. For the concert, the choir will be accompanied by string quartet, bassoon, oboe, trumpet, tympani and keyboard.

Admission is $15. Tickets may be bought at the door or in advance from choir members.