Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Hudson Community Choruses, Children’s, Youth and Adults will sing in the season on Sunday, December 4th at 4 p.m. at Christ Church Episcopal, 21 Aurora Street with its annual holiday concert, Tidings of Comfort & Joy.  All three choruses will sing classical works from Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and Felix Mendelssohn and contemporary pieces from Pinkzebra and Cecilia McDowall. Emily Laurance, harpist and Darrell Zhang, cellist, will accompany the choruses.

The adult chorus, in its 34th season, will open the concert with Vaughan Williams’ stirring Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Founding Children’s and Youth choruses Director, Eve Sliwinski will direct the chorus, with accompanist Mario Buchanan and cellist, Darrell Zhang, on the Fantasia.

There is No Rose, by Cecilia McDowall, a modern hymn, commissioned by and performed in 2021 by Kings College for its annual performance and international broadcast of the Festival of Lessons and Carols, will be featured in this year’s concert. King’s College’s Director of Music, Daniel Hyde, asked McDowall to write something that would bring "a moment of stillness" in the annual Christmas Eve service, giving her freedom to choose her own text.

McDowall told Choir & Organ Magazine: "For this carol I looked for words that would help me express a feeling of intimacy and quiet joy: a text that could lend itself to a slower tempo; nothing too animated. I have always loved the medieval poem There is no rose, and after looking through many different texts I felt this macaronic gem would be just the one to convey the spirit I was after...the intensity and beauty of these words seemed so appropriate for that quieter moment of contemplation within the service.” HCC is committed to spotlighting new and less known composers from a variety of backgrounds to expand the repertoire of the choruses and the musical experiences of its audiences. In 2019, HCC presented the northeast Ohio premier of Dan Forrest’s Jubilate Deo.

The Hudson Community Youth and Children’s Choruses, directed by Assistant Artistic Director, Mario Buchanan, will sing Britten’s New Year Carol, Stars Are for Those Who Lift Their Eyes, Hava na shirah, and selections from Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, accompanied by harp.   All three choruses will join for Pinkzebra’s Winter Dreams.

The concert will conclude with the adult chorus singing Mark Miller’s setting of O Magnum Mysterium, Mendelssohn’s There Shall a Star Come Out of Jacob, The Chanukah Song (We Are Lights), Brittten’s Hymn to the Virgin, and Randall Bass’ rousing Gloria.

Audience members are invited to join the chorus for a reception to follow in the Fellowship Hall.