Are you near Birmingham???
JOHN
BSC CAROL SERVICE
Choirs will be singing during Birmingham-Southern’s Carol Service, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 5, and 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, at Canterbury United Methodist Church. This 72nd annual event, which is the college’s oldest and foremost holiday tradition, is free and open to all, and no reservations or tickets are required.
This year, the Carol Service will feature the two student choirs of the BSC Music Department: the Concert Choir, conducted by Joseph Hugh Thomas Professor of Music Lester Seigel, and Southern Chorale, directed by Professor David Smith. BSC’s Alumni Choir, also conducted by Seigel, will perform too and join the student choirs in two pieces, including the traditional Hallelujah from Handel’s Messiah.
The annual concert is a mixture of motets, anthems, and seasonal carols. The Concert Choir will offer works in old English, Spanish, and German, in addition to modern English carol settings, with pieces by J.S. Bach, Johann Schulz, Heinz Werner Zimmermann, John Byrt, John Rutter, and many others. The Alumni Choir will present works by Johannes Brahms, Malcolm Pearce, and a spiritual arrangement by Birmingham’s K. Lee Scott. In addition, they will sing BSC Professor Jim Cook’s haunting setting of Away in a Manger, with Cook conducting. Dr. Cook also is organist for the event, and preludes by two student organists will precede the service.
Campus Chaplain John Richardson will lead the service, which will be interspersed with readers drawn from many facets of the campus community.
“One innovation this year is that Southern Chorale is a treble ensemble, comprised solely of sopranos and altos, which will offer some of the uniquely beautiful literature composed for that choral voicing that so inspired composers such as Benjamin Britten and others,” said Seigel. “BSC composer Dorothy Hindman has adapted an original carol arrangement, Incarnation, especially for this voicing, with words by BSC alumnus Harvey Ragland. And several of our dedicated Alumni Choir members travel a great distance to rehearse and perform with us—over 200 miles one way!”
For more than 50 years, the Carol Service was held at the former McCoy Church near the campus. Canterbury—located at 350 Overbrook Road in Mountain Brook—has hosted the service consistently since McCoy’s closing in 1993, and it continues to be a place where the service draws people from around the community as well as the campus.
A nursery for young children is available for Sunday’s performance by calling 205/874-1546. For more information about the carol service, call 205/226-4950.
We hope you will put BSC’s Carol Service first on your list of holiday weekend musical events to attend at public venues around Birmingham!
