December 8th: The Masterworks Choir to present its 35th Annual Christmas Concert

The Masterworks Choir of Florence will present their 35^th annual Christmas Concert on Sunday, December 8 at 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm at Central United Methodist Church, Florence, SC.  The 65 voices of the Masterworks Choir will be joined by a chamber orchestra along with eleven soloists, and will be conducted by Dr. William Carswell, Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music, Dance and Theatre at Coker College.

The program features the joyous Magnificat by J. S. Bach.  Written in Leipzig for the 1723 Christmas Vespers service, the Magnificat was conceived on a grand scale, requiring five soloists, a five-part choir and, for its time, an unusually large orchestra.  The extraordinary impact of Bach’s great choral works derives essentially from his remarkable ability to balance, yet at the same time to exploit to the full, the spiritual and dramatic elements of each text, whether it be one as concise as the Magnificat or as monumental as the St. Matthew Passion.

The second featured work on the program is the Oratorio de Noël (Christmas Oratorio) by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.  Saint-Saëns was a great admirer of Bach, even noting in the instrumental introduction to the Oratorio “in the style of J. S. Bach.”  The piece comes from the early part of Saint-Saëns’ career, at a time when sacred music had been in decline.  Written in just eleven days the Christmas Oratorio is a work of great charm which appeals particularly because of its beautiful part-writing and its melodic grace and simplicity.

Vocal soloists for the concert are singers from the ranks of the Masterworks Choir, many familiar in the Florence arts community.  The Magnificat will feature sopranos Rebecca Thompson, Sharyn Mapes, Julie Thomas, Kat Justice and Kari McKeone; alto Ashley Long, tenors Paul Zwiers and Shaw Thompson, and bass Bill Hazelwood.  The Christmas Oratorio soloists include sopranos Rebecca Thompson and Julie Thomas, alto Ashley Long, tenor Shaw Thompson, and basses Bill Hazelwood, Ray Hazelwood, and Steve Mapes.

The Masterworks Christmas concert is always a greatly anticipated musical event in the Pee Dee region.  Admission to all Masterworks concerts is FREE, so you will want to get there early to reserve your seat!