The Cantata Singers are ushering in the season with “Let Heaven and Nature Sing — Some Holiday Fun”, a family-friendly concert filled with favorites both old and new. Music Director and Conductor Will Wickham says the program draws on a wide range of traditions.
“We’re doing quite an eclectic collection of music,” Wickham explains. “A lot of it comes from my long-ago history. One of the first things I can remember singing as a small child was Children, Go Where I Send Thee. We’re doing an arrangement of that which is particularly sprightly and up-to-date — it actually involves a rapper.”
The concert will also feature familiar carols and holiday classics. “We’ve got some Christmas favorites, like Silent Night and Sleigh Ride,” Wickham says. “We’re doing the choral arrangement of Sleigh Ride, complete with whip cracks. And we’re bringing back the Hallelujah Chorus from our May performance of Handel’s Messiah — although this Hallelujah Chorus is different than anybody has heard it.”
The choir itself is enjoying a period of growth. “I think we’ve got 46 or 47 singers this time around,” Wickham notes. “It’s a bigger group than we’ve had recently. We finished last season with 42 on stage for Messiah, so we’ve grown a little bit over the summer.”
Looking ahead, the group is preparing for an international musical adventure. “Many of our members are headed to London,” Wickham says. “We were gifted an invitation to sing with a production company based there, with the concert taking place in Rochester, in Kent, in June. It all came about from our performance of Dan Forrest’s "Creation" last March. According to Dan, we may have been the first choir to do the reduced orchestration version of his most recent major work, and that performance earned us this invitation.”
The Cantata Singers present “Let Heaven and Nature Sing — Some Holiday Fun” on Saturday, December 6, at 3 p.m. at New Beginnings United Methodist Church, 300 East Miller Street in Elmira. For tickets and more information, visit cantatasingers.com.