The Island Community Chorus delighted audiences over the weekend with a pair of holiday concerts at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.
Director Peter Boak chose the title Cold Hands, Warm Hearts for this year’s program, which mingled Christmas and winter-themed songs from across the centuries with a striking emphasis on 20th and 21st-century works.
Pianist Garrett Brown accompanied the chorus, more than 110 singers who overflowed the church’s stage. The concert also featured the string quartet of Rebecca Laird and Monica Stein Krausz on violins, Nicholas Citro on viola and Megan Koch on cello, with a special appearance by the ukulele duet of Andy Herr and Eric Mulhern.
Saturday’s concert began with Gustav Holst’s Christmas Day, A Choral Fantasy on Old Carols. Written in 1910, the piece weaves together such well-known carols as Good Christian Men, Rejoice; God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and The First Noel.
Introducing the next work, a setting of the medieval Christmas text O Magnum Mysterium, Mr. Boak told the audience that while most of the music in the concert is by living composers, only one of them was also in the church, sitting on the stage as part of the chorus.
Dorian Lopes, who sings in the tenor section, composed a new setting for the prayer, which marvels at the mystery of animals being present at the birth of Jesus in a manger.
Singing in Latin, the choir captured the sense of wonder in the text and in Mr. Lopes’s music, which ended with a stirring series of Allelujahs.
The gentle wonder of a snowfall was the theme of the next work, superstar choral composer Eric Whitacre’s Glow. Commissioned for Walt Disney’s World of Color in Orlando, Fla., the song proved a perfect bridge between the holy awe of O Magnum Mysterium and the rollicking piece to follow, The Sleigh by Richard Kountz.
Returning to the sacred, Mr. Boak introduced a minor-keyed Basque carol for Advent, The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came.
“It’s a very mystical piece, a mysterious piece,” he said, citing the lyrics as translated by Victorian minister S. Baring-Gould that describe the annunciating angel’s snowy wings and flaming eyes.
Next, the chorus stayed seated and listened as the string quartet performed Carol of the Bells by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych, and the 16th-century English carol Greensleeves in a filigreed arrangement by contemporary American composer and violinist Matthew Naughtin.
Standing again, the chorus sang West Coast composer Morten Lauridsen’s sublime arrangement of the James Agee poem, Sure On This Shining Night, which begins “Sure on this shining night/Of star made shadows round,/Kindness must watch for me/This side the ground.”
A French Christmas carol from the early 18th century formed the basis for contemporary composer Audrey Snyder’s Patapan Fantasia, a lively and demanding choral fantasy that thrilled the audience with nimble vocals and jolly lyrics about shepherds playing pipes and drums.
A second contemporary arrangement of a medieval Latin text, Ecce Novum by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, followed the fantasia.
In his introduction, Mr. Boak credited Mr. Brown with introducing him and the chorus to Mr. Gjeilo, several of whose works they performed in an April, 2015 concert.
“I just find his music to be contagious,” Mr. Boak said.
After the reverent Gjeilo piece, Saturday’s program ended on a tropical note with Mele Kelikimaka, the Hawaiian-themed holiday song that has been recorded countless times since its 1949 debut.
On ukuleles, Mr. Herr and Mr. Mulhern added just the right dash of aloha to the chorus’s sunny performance.
The Island Community Chorus sings its next concert in April 2020, but Mr. Boak will be leading Christmas carols again on Dec. 14 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Federated Church in Edgartown.
This time everyone can join in the holiday sing-along with Mr. Boak taking requests at the piano.
For more about the Island Community Chorus, visit islandcommunitychorus.com.
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