‘A big sing’

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This article was published 14/12/2019 (2410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like many people, Carol Vander Kooy could hum along to the famous Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, but she had never sung the entire work.

That changed this fall when she learned the alto part of famous choruses such as “Glory to God,” and “All we like sheep have gone astray” as part of a 125-voice community choir set to perform the beloved oratorio by George Frideric Handel next weekend.

“It’s a lot more challenging than I realized and it’s absolutely amazing with all the interwoven parts,” Vander Kooy says about the composition for chorus, orchestra and four soloists, which premièred in Dublin in 1742.

The choir performs Messiah at 7 p.m. on Dec. 20 and 21 at Covenant Christian Reformed Church, under the baton of Nathan Poole.

The idea for the performance was born a year ago after the last hallelujah had faded from Covenant’s Christmas Day service, explains Trisha Booy, worship assistant at the North Kildonan Church for the past decade. Every year, worshippers are invited onto the stage to sing that popular chorus from Messiah, and later the pastor asked Booy to consider gathering a choir to perform the entire oratorio.

“The idea stuck with me and it was sort of pulling at my heart to do it,” explains Booy, who will accompany the choir on organ and harpsichord during the performances.

Her first step was contacting Winnipeg soprano Monica Huisman, whose mother is a member of the congregation. Then Booy pulled in Poole, music director at Westminster United Church, hired a 15-piece orchestra, vocal soloists and section leaders before recruiting choristers of all ages from about three dozen churches in the northeast section of Winnipeg.

“This isn’t a set choir,” she says of the group of125 choristers, including 20 from Covenant Christian Reformed Church.

“It’s all volunteers just for this performance.”

Choir members committed to 11 Wednesday night rehearsals from October to December, and Poole expected them to learn their parts at home in order to master the 17 choruses they will sing next weekend. Only about one-quarter of the choristers had sung the entire oratorio before, known for its demanding vocal range and many embellishments and ornamentations, something Poole calls “a big sing.”

“You can spend years with the scores and find something new to do,” he says of the oratorio’s many layers of music and meaning.

“It’s a monumental work. It’s overdone but it has such staying power.”

That staying power and depth in Handel’s composition makes each performance fresh for the musicians and the audience, says Huisman, who has sung the oratorio many times, both as a former member of Winnipeg Singers and as a soloist.

“I am very impressed at the initiative Trish (Booy) has taken to make this a community endeavour and to allow those to sing this work for the pure joy and experience of it, without any required training,” says Huisman, who teaches voice at the University of Manitoba.

“I think it’s enormously optimistic, which I love.”

Booy says this rendition of the Messiah, expected to run about 2½ hours with intermission, will provide listeners with an immersive experience, since the 150 singers and musicians will fill the stage and the front of the church, performing just metres away from the 600 people expected to fill the pews each night.

Taking place just days before Christmas, she says it also provides the audience a sense of the season, as well as the joy of doing good for others since the two performances raise funds for Forward House Ministries, a Christian residence for men in need.

Most of all, singers will join in the rousing and familiar choruses telling the story of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ inside a place of worship instead of a concert hall, Booy says.

“For us, this is where we worship every week. This is an act of worship, preparing for Christmas and the coming messiah,” she says.

After weeks of rehearsals, practising tricky rhythms and memorizing notes and words, Vander Kooy feels she now understands more about the composer’s intention behind his three-part oratorio.

“It has a lot of meaning for me,” she says.

“It’s more than just singing in a concert. It’s praising God through the music.”

brenda@suderman.com

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