December 18, 2009

Preview: Messiah (and More!) Sing-Along

ProMusica's Messiah (and more) Sing-Along is Dec. 11
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 12:50 PM

ProMusica Chamber Orchestra's Messiah (and more) Sing-Along will be held Friday, Dec. 11, at the Southern Theatre. The program is part of the orchestra's weekend of holiday performances, which also include performances of "A Baroque Holiday" Saturday at the Pontifical College Josephinum and Sunday at the Southern. All ticket information is available at www.promusicacolumbus.org.

ProMusica Chamber Orchestra's Messiah (and more) Sing-Along will be held Friday, Dec. 11, at the Southern Theatre. The program is part of the orchestra's weekend of holiday performances, which also include performances of "A Baroque Holiday" Saturday at the Pontifical College Josephinum and Sunday at the Southern. All ticket information is available at www.promusicacolumbus.org.

ProMusica Chamber Orchestra has been doing sing-along concerts long enough now that its volunteer sit-in singers are learning the entire Messiah and not just the first section of Handel's beloved oratorio.

"Typically, the further you go along in Messiah, the less people know," artistic director Timothy Russell explained. "Some (of the singers) are now proud of the fact that they know the rest as well as they know the first part."

Russell's comments were partly in jest, but they do point out two things: first, that ProMusica's annual Sing-Along Messiah is a central Ohio tradition; second, that people love to sing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Columbus' chamber orchestra invites community, church and school choral groups to fill the Southern Theatre each year and join in as the musicians and some of their high school partner orchestra students perform the classic work.

" Messiah is just a great piece, and these sing-alongs are a tradition around the world," Russell said. "ProMusica believes that it's important to have more people actually participating in music."

Bexley High School choir teacher Amy Blosser has been taking students to the event for seven years. She said singing a work not often performed by school groups, and with a professional orchestra, makes the event a treat for her students.

"They love it, but they're always a little frightened" at the scope of the piece, joking, "I tell them to make sure to learn four choruses and good luck on the rest."

Sing-along veteran Michelle Morabito said the concert brings together voices that might not otherwise join forces.

"The beauty of the thing is the mixing of voices both young and old," Morabito, a member of the choir at St. Brigid of Kildare Church, said. "I'm just in awe of the musicians on the stage but also all the talent and enthusiasm around me."

Russell said the intent is to provide a "musical encounter" both with the orchestra and with the gathered singers.

Russell conducts the overture and first chorus then shares the podium with directors of partner organizations. Blosser called the experience "nerve-wracking."

"First, it's an honor to conduct that orchestra," she said. "It makes me nervous every year.

"But it's fun to look out and see the students in the mix with all those people, some of whom have been singing Messiah for many, many years."

"I highly recommend that anyone with a voice and with a love for Handel's Messiah should do this," Morabito said. "You're pretty actively involved in your part, but there are times I find myself just stopping to hear the music all around me."

Which goes to Russell's earlier point - it's important to try and learn the music and make good music, but in the end, "it's really, really fun."