Saturday
May 18, 2024 
The Bucks County Choral Society’s Christmas concerts will be held on Dec. 10 and 11, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 235 E. State St. in Doylestown.
Celebrating the choir’s 50th anniversary season, the program will feature the revival of an early work by the acclaimed American opera composer Richard Wargo, a Christmas cantata, “Voices in the Mist.”
This cantata was first commissioned for the Choral Society in 1988 by the late Elma Heckler. There will be two performances: from 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10 , with a handbell prelude at 7 p.m.; and from 4 to 5:45 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, with a handbell prelude at 3:30 p.m.
The Choral Society’s annual Christmas concerts have been a beloved Bucks County institution ever since Heckler established the tradition soon after she was appointed artistic director in 1977. The Wargo work will be accompanied by an ensemble of 10 winds and brass from the professional training orchestra Symphony in C. The bright holiday sounds of the Quadrants Handbell Quartet will ring in the concert with a prelude of carol arrangements.
The program opens with Thomas Lloyd’s processional arrangement of “O Come, Emmanuel,” composed in 2001 for his second season leading the Choral Society. Celebrating another Choral Society tradition, the program will also include two selections from Fred Waring’s beloved music as arranged for The Pennsylvanians, popular in the 1950s in the early years of network television.
In another nod to local traditions, the second half of the concert will begin with Assistant Conductor Susan Johnson leading a chamber choir from the Choral Society in a selection of the well-known Alfred Burt Carols, followed by the full choir processing in for the annual singing of Handel’s famous “Hallelujah Chorus.”
The choir will also sing several familiar carols with the audience, accompanied by organist Timothy Harrell, concluding as always with the singing of “Silent Night” by candlelight.
The concert is sponsored by Malmark Bellcraftsmen with support from the Pine Run Retirement Community.
For discounted advance sale tickets and information, go to buckschoral.org.
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