Around Town: Holiday concerts at local churches are on tap this week
With Christmas now just a few weeks away, holiday concerts around the area will be happening. For this edition of Around Town, we highlight the next concerts on tap for the region.
Christmas organ recitals return to Brevard First United Methodist Church
The Beulah McMinn Zachary Organ Foundation of Brevard First United Methodist Church recently announced it is hosting the seventh annual Christmas Organ Recital Series for the community.
The recitals will be held on two Fridays (Dec. 2 and Dec. 9) with two different organists from Western North Carolina performing on the church's Schantz pipe organ. The recitals will each begin at 12:30 p.m., last 30-45 minutes, and will include seasonal favorites, as well as other classical works for organ, according to a news release.
The Sanctuary Organ is a 28-rank pipe organ built by the Schantz Organ Company in 1958. The organ has been upgraded and enhanced throughout the years. Most recently in 2014, the organ was re-voiced by organ builder Daniel Angerstein of Hendersonville, the release said.
The Beulah McMinn Zachary Organ Foundation maintains the two pipe organs used at FUMC as well as the Robinson Harpsichord. The Foundation also sponsors recitals and concerts for the benefit of the church and the community.
Michael Helman will present the first concert on Dec. 2. Helman is currently Director of Music/Organist at Brevard-Davidson River Presbyterian Church in Brevard, where he directs the Chancel choir and handbell ensemble and is a staff accompanist at Brevard College.
Prior to moving to North Carolina, Helman was Director of Music/Organist for 16 years at Faith Presbyterian in Cape Coral, Florida, and for 15 years at St. Paul’s United Methodist in Wilmington, Delaware. He was a soloist with the Southwest Florida Symphony playing the Poulenc “Organ Concerto,” Saint-Saens’ “Symphony No. 3” (the Organ Symphony) and various Handel organ concertos.
Dr. Rhonda Furr will present the second concert on Dec. 9. Dr. Furr, a Sylva native, retired as Professor Emerita from Houston Baptist University (1989-2021) where she primarily taught musicology and organ, the release said. She also served as organist at Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, an Presbyterian churches, and most recently retired after 17 years at First Presbyterian Church in Houston.
She served as Dean of the American Guild of Organist Houston Chapter and was the Convention Coordinator for the 2016 AGO National Convention. She and her husband now live in Franklin. They have four children and 11 grandchildren. She continues in music ministry as an organ substitute in WNC and teaches piano masterclasses for area piano teachers.
Admission is free to both recitals. A love offering to support the organ foundation will be accepted. Parking is available across from the church in the lot on Caldwell Street. For more information, contact the church office at 828-884-9025.
Carolina Concert Choir to hold winter concert
Carolina Concert Choir recently announced its winter concert, "The Dawn from On High," will be held at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9 and at 3 p.m. Dec. 10 at Hendersonville's Grace Lutheran Church located at 1245 Sixth Ave. W.
According to a news release, The Carolina Concert Choir's presentation will feature Dan Forrest’s composition entitled LUX (Light): The Dawn from On High. As Dan Forrest has written “… the title invokes the dual meaning of the text of the first movement, where the light of dawn gradually ascends into the sky, yet the Light of the world descends from the sky – a “Dawn from on High."
The work in five movements traces a journey through time – from the ancient to today, the release said. The music of LUX, written in 2018, was inspired visually by the light in the Reims Cathedral in France and at the Poulnabrone Dolmen in Ireland and musically by a variety of musical sources from ancient chant to modern minimalist composers.
The concert will also include an audience sing-along of six carols. The presentation will be by the 50-member auditioned Carolina Concert Choir conducted by Dr. Michael Lancaster along with a nine-piece orchestra of accomplished regional musicians. For more information visit carolinaconcertchoir.org.
Brevard College to present Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
The Brevard College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, under the direction of Dr. David Gresham, will present the 25th annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 in The Porter Center for Performing Arts.
The concert is free and open to the public.
The annual service follows in the tradition of the longstanding ceremony held at King’s College in Cambridge, England, where the Festival was introduced just over one 100 years ago by a former army chaplain as a response to World War I, according to a news release. The ceremony alternates biblical readings chronicling the prophecy and birth of Christ with carols that illuminate a part of the previous reading.
“This is one of the most meaningful events in the life of the college, and I'm honored to be a part of this annual celebration of Lessons and Carols at Brevard College,” Gresham said in the release.
As is tradition, the ceremony opens with "Once in Royal David's City," sung first by a soloist, with the choir and congregants joining in later verses. The conclusion of the program is anl arrangement of "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night) sung by candlelight.
To learn more about Brevard College visit brevard.edu.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Around Town: Holiday concerts at local churches are on tap this week
