Holiday Concert

This is the season for holiday favorites spilling forth from the radio. Jose Feliciano, Bing and Bowie, those Jingle wooofing dogs. We smile for a bit, but then it fades. How could it not? We’ve heard it all before. There is nothing new the Boss can tell us about Santa coming to town.

Perhaps then it is time to seek out the new and different this year. Some feast for the ears and by extension the soul. But where to turn?

The Old Whaling Church this weekend, that’s where.

It’s the annual holiday concert performed by the Island Community Chorus. And unless you are a frequent dabbler in Swahili, Olde English, Hebrew and the poetry of James Agee, there is no chance you will leave the show muttering, same old, same old.

The chorus features over 100 singers under the artistic direction of Peter R. Boak with support from pianist L. Garrett Brown. The program includes a popular Kenyan folksong sung in the original Swahili, a pair of seasonal carols from Spain and Ireland and a celebration of Hanukkah sung in Hebrew. The haunting poem Sure on This Shining Night by James Agee has been set to music by Morten Lauridsen.

There will also be a nod to the traditional with Ken Darby’s and Harry Simeone’s Twas the Night Before Christmas and Mac Ruff’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas, along with Mark Sirett’s arrangement of Auld Lang Syne to close the program.

Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4 and 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 5. A donation of $15 is suggested at the door. After each performance all are welcome to enjoy a festive buffet of sweet and savory snacks.