Blue Ridge Singers Christmas Concert – Canticum Novum: Sing a New Song!

The Blue Ridge Singers performed the first of their Christmas Concert series Canticum Novum: Sing a New Song! at the Front Royal Presbyterian Church on December 13, 2019. The second performance will be on December 15, 2019, at the First Baptist Church of Winchester.

The concert featured beloved carols and traditional melodies for the holiday season and a 3-part work for choir and organ by Gerald Near titled “Cum Novo Cantico”. Other composers included William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Johannes Brahms, Leo Sowerby, Eric Barnum, Philip Stopford, Will Todd, Stephen Paulus, Franz Gruber, and William Dawson.

The Royal Examiner camera was there and presents this concert for your enjoyment during this holiday season:

Mark your calendar for the Spring 2020 concert series, titled “Into Eternity”, which will take place on four dates:

Friday, April 17, 2020     7:30 p.m.     Front Royal Presbyterian Church
Sunday, April 19, 2020     4:00 p.m.     First Baptist Church Winchester
Tuesday, April 21, 2020     7:30 p.m.     All Saints Catholic Church, Manassas
Sunday, April 26, 2020     4:00 p.m.     Christ Episcopal Church, Millwood

Blue Ridge Singers brings together musicians of all ages and backgrounds to create harmony, beauty, and unity through the performance of challenging, cutting-edge choral music. They are a passionate group, committed to offering high quality musical experiences which inspire, educate, and enrich not only their members, but also our community.

Blue Ridge Singers was born in 2009 of a vision held by founding member Patricia Spory and her daughter Beth Whitney for a new community-based choir in Warren County, Virginia. They dreamed of creating an ensemble capable of performing challenging sacred and secular compositions spanning a wide range of musical periods and styles. Gathering a group of twenty-two auditioned singers, they began rehearsal under the direction of Tom Bowen, choral teacher at Skyline High School. The choir debuted at the Front Royal “Festival of Leaves” in October 2009 and performed its initial full concert in the fall of 2010. By encouraging his students to join, Mr. Bowen helped the choir to realize one of its goals of incorporating youth in the community.

In 2011, Dr. Jeffrey Alban was invited to become the artistic director and conductor of the Blue Ridge Singers. Since that time, the choir has grown with many talented new voices. Blue Ridge Singers present a broad range of repertoire including medieval chant through present-day compositions. The choir frequently presents guest vocalists and instrumentalists and has premiered new works by local musicians, most recently introducing Run, Shenandoah!, with text by local poet Barbara Frank arranged by local composer Glen Caluda. Under Dr. Alban’s direction, the choir continues to improve its technical skills, musical interpretation, and engagement of its listeners as it performs concerts in a growing number of venues in the northern Shenandoah Valley and beyond.

For more information, visit their website: blueridgesingers.org