"Behold New Joy" A Holiday Concert

"Behold New Joy" A Family Holiday Concert

Choirs and Bell
Choirs Perform Annual Family Christmas Concert on December 15, 2013

Crystal Lake, IL – The First Congregational
Church of Crystal Lake presents its annual Family Christmas Concert, ”Behold
New Joy” on Sunday, December 15 at 4pm, featuring FCC’s 50-member adult Vestry
Choir, the Jubilate Handbell Choir and the Alleluia Sound High School Choir
under the leadership team of Ann Tucker, Director of Music, Barbara Thorsen and
Jo Ann Black, accompanists and Toni Gambini, Bellmaster.

Behold New Joy, arranged by contemporary
composer Shawn Kirchner, was commissioned by the Los Angeles Masters Chorale in
2011 and is the central work for the concert. It features five ancient carols imaginatively
arranged for mixed voices and organ from the Piae Cantiones, a medieval Latin carol book first published in
1582. One of the carols, Ecce novum
gaudium, is not as familiar, and as the arranger states, that might have
been due to the translation used when it was first “rediscovered” in 1853. When
he looked back at the original 1582 version, “the carol’s lively language . . .
is a testament to both the inspiring power of the nativity story and the power
of art to speak across the generations, ensuring that the ‘new joy’ of ‘ancient
carols’ will continue to be known for many Christmases to come”. Vestry Choir
will also perform Donald Fraser’s beautiful Jessye’s
Carol or This Christmastide as
well as Miller’s arrangement of My
Dancing Day accompanied by Kaitlyn Konzak, flute.

The Alleluia Sound
high school choir will perform an arrangement of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Philip Kern and Psallite written by Michael Praetorius (1571-1621). Jubilate Handbell
Choir will perform favorites such as Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” “Danse
Russe Trepak from the Nutcracker” as
well as carols from around the world including the Puerto Rican “Carol of the
Wise Men”, Burgundian “Pat-a-Pan” and French “First Noel”. As always, audience
members and performers alike will enjoy singing familiar carols together during
a portion of the program.