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Peace and Joy come to Sturbridge, Woodstock in December

STURBRIDGE – The 45 members of the community chorus Wings of Song are energetically working towards their next pair of concerts, simply titled “Peace and Joy.” The performances are scheduled for Saturday, December 14th at 7:30pm at St. Anne’s Church, 16 Church Street, Fiskdale (part of Sturbridge, MA), and Sunday, December 15th at 3pm at the Evangelical Covenant Church, 24 Child Hill Road, just up from the Common in Woodstock, CT.

Music Director Nym Cooke says that these concerts will give audiences “a deep immersion in sonic and musical peace” followed by “an ascent to multitudes of heavenly musical joys.” There’s a variety of musical genres: classical compositions next to folk-based carols and concert pieces, along with some beautiful early American tunes for the season. “Everything from the familiar to the utterly unfamiliar will be present,” says Cooke. “We’ll be doing Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’ chorus with dynamics changes and shadings (loud, soft, and everything inbetween) that will have you on the edge of your seat. We’ll have the original 1818 version of ‘Silent Night’ with guitar and two women’s voices. “And then we’ll be singing an unbelievably serene and gorgeous ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Agnus Dei’ from Arvo Pärt’s Berlin Mass of 1990, contrasting with the French-noël-based ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Agnus Dei’ from the Midnight Mass for Christmas by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, which dates from about 1690.”

Singalongs will be included, of course: the round “Dona nobis pacem,” the familiar version of “Silent Night,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem” set by Ralph Vaughan Williams to the folk melody “Forest Green,” and a dynamic version of “Joy to the World” from the early 1800s “that nobody knows and everybody should know,” claims Cooke. “Glad Tidings” by Walter Janes of Ashford, Connecticut will rub shoulders with the ever-popular “Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella”; two soaring “Amen”s by English Renaissance master Orlando Gibbons will share program space with Bach’s “Jesu, joy of our desiring”; Rossetti and Holst’s lovely “In the bleak mid-winter” will be sung just before American composer Charles Ives’s “A Christmas Carol.” “This music plunges deep, and soars high,” says Cooke. “There should be lots here to delight and inspire everyone.” The concerts are free, with a freewill offering collected at intermission. People are advised to arrive early to be sure of a seat. Both venues are handicap-accessible. And as always, yummy refreshments will be served afterwards!

For more information about these concerts or about singing with Wings of Song, people may email Wings of Song President Carol Curtin (carolcurtin77@gmail.com) or Music Director Cooke (nymcooke@gmail.com). Find us at wingsofsong.org