Arts, Dining & Entertainment

BarnArts welcomes community for 9th annual Winter Carols

Friday, Dec. 20, 7 p.m.—BARNARD—The First Universalist Church and Society of Barnard will host BarnArts’ 9th annual Winter Carols at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 20.  Admission is free for this 75-minute performance under the direction of conductor Michael Zsoldos.  Choral performances by the BarnArts Youth and BarnArts Chorale are mixed with musical performances by local musicians, and the evening includes audience sing-alongs with candle lighting to celebrate the Solstice.

Winter Carols is BarnArts’ original event and is provided to the community as a gift, to encourage all to come together and celebrate the season with song.

The year’s celebration includes performances of “In Dulci Jubilo” with roots back to the 1400s, and the harmonically challenging “Lux Aurumque” by contemporary composer Eric Whitacre.  Older BarnArts youth will sing the Peter, Paul & Mary song “A Soulin” with folk string support by Trifolium, and the all ages youth will sing a “Sound of Music” medley — all this and other seasonal favorites, too!

Michael Zsoldso will pick up his sax and join with jazz guitarist Jason Ennis for an interlude of energized holiday music. Mark van Gulden and Kathleen Dolan on piano, drum and flute provide a duo of thoughtful holiday songs and the local string group Trifolium, Andy Mueller, Justin Park & Chloe Powell, will play a medley of toe-tapping traditional music, swapping harmonies as smoothly as they swap instruments!

Singing in this year’s BarnArts Chorale are sopranos: Nancy Conte, Bitsy Harley, Jill Leavitt, Suzy Malerich, Sarah Mills, Sara Norcross, Lisa Robar, Etta Warren.  Alto: Barbara Abraham, Nicole Conte, Linda Grant, Jane Metcalf, Carin Park, Deborah Rice, Linda Treash; Tenors: Kathleen Dolan, Oliver Goodenough, James Mills, Anne Shafmaster, Tambrey Vutech;  Basses: Dave Clark, Dan Deneen, William B. Hoyt, Bill McCollom, Jim Reiman, Mark van Gulden.

BarnArts Youth include Ben Rumelt, Sierra Bystrak, Marlena Farinas, Asa Crowley, Ella Davis, Zella Little, Harriet Crowley, Annabelle Park, Caylen Piper, Prudence Crowley, and Charlie Park.

Based in Woodstock, conductor Michael Zsoldos is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Michigan State University where he studied with Branford Marsalis. His current performances projects are “Music for Loving: A Tribute to Ben Webster,” the Miro Sprague Quintet and The Convergence Project. Zsoldos composed and performed the music for the 2017 documentary “Seeing Through The Wall: Meeting Ourselves in Palestine and Israel.” He is a lecturer in classical saxophone at Dartmouth, the instrumental arranger of the Dartmouth Gospel Choir, and a faculty member of Interplay Jazz and Arts and the Vermont Jazz Center’s Summer Jazz Workshop, where he teaches jazz improvisation and leads jazz combos.

Winter Carols is a free event, but donations to BarnArts are accepted at the door. For more information visit barnarts.org.

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