In these trying times it sometimes takes a bit of ingenuity to keep some semblance of normal life. To that end, Bay Chamber Concerts & Music School and Down East Singers have excelled. They recently partnered to present a Virtual Holiday Concert, featuring dozens of local singers, community members and musicians – including the Halcyon String Quartet.
A moving and hope-filled concert featuring members of Down East Singers, who “exhibit tremendous dynamic range, from mere whispers to mighty fortissimos, that tingles one’s spine” (Daily Hampshire Gazette), Bowdoin Chorus, and additional guest choristers. Also performing in this highly collaborative concert are the accomplished Halcyon String Quartet, who use music to respond to the urgency of climate change, members of the Midcoast Brass Quintet and pianist, Jennifer McIvor.

The concert repertoire includes Schubert‘s German Mass (sung in English), a collection of hymns in which there is a sweetness of melody throughout that cannot but draw a listener in, Bortniansky‘s setting of The Lord’s Prayer (in English), Johnson‘s immortal African American anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing, and the deeply inspiring and unifying spiritual We Shall Overcome.
The video created for this holiday concert was filmed by Luke Fatora in a hayfield in Cushing.
Donations to Down East Singers and Bay Chamber Concerts & Music School will be gratefully accepted.
This is their concert.