2023-12-06

Musique Royale presents three concerts to get you in the Christmas spirit

LUNENBURG - The historic St. John's Anglican Church will once again be the centre for Christmas music in December on the South Shore. Three annual, shouldn't-miss-out concerts, hosted by Musique Royale, will be staged over the next three weekends.

Nick and his father, Paul, will be bringing the Cathedral Choir of All Saints, with guest performer, Alex Dobson in the first concert Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. The concert is titled, A Rose in Winter.

The second concert features the Capella Regalis men's and boys' choir in a Chorister's Christmas. This is scheduled for Dec. 16 at 4 p.m.

The third and final event will feature Janelle Lucyk, who has put together for Handel's Messiah, a pocket-sized, "Messiah on the go", event which features sopranos Lucyk and Ariadne Lih; mezzo-soprano Sarah Myatt; tensor Kerry Bursey and bass Matthew Li, as soloists.

This event, will be the third in a three-day, three-stop tour for the group and will be held in Lunenburg Dec. 23 at 7 p.m.

Lucyk is the artistic director and administrative director for Musique Royale, said that people on the South Shore and in the province is amazing.

"It can't be understated. The fact that we have these groups operating in Nova Scotia and doing the work they do. These really kick off the Christmas celebrating and it wouldn't really feel like Christmas if we didn't have these concerts," she said.

"We're very luck to have the quality and the commitment to chorale music that Nick and Paul have here. They rehears so often that they have such a strong team of performers and the level and quality is very high."

Tickets for the first and third event can be purchased by going to: musiqueroyale.com. The Chorister's Christmas concert is free of charge, but donations will be accepted, with proceeds going to the local women's shelter and the food bank.

Nick Halley will be conducting the Cathedral Choir of All Saints in the first concert, while father, Paul accompanies the choir.

"Paul has designed a rather, what would be classed as a wildly ambitious program," said Nick. "It covers quite the gamut in terms of styles, epoch and and language," he said, describing the choir as "absolutely tip top. it's a top notch professional ensemble that you can really do whatever you want, musically with that group because they are so accomplished."

He said the concert will not be an easy program to sing, "but it will be very evocative."

This concert will feature Dobson, a baritone who will be the feature narrator and soloist in the concert.

"He is a theatrical person as well as a great baritone and having him with us also means that we will be doing some music that dad's been wanting to do for a long time, such as the Fantasia on Christmas Carols, by Vaughan Williams which features the baritone."

Some of the singers in the All Saints choir will also take part in the Capella Regalis concert, but Nick says they try to make them totally separate events. The age of the participants are range from seven to 70.

"Programmatically it will be different in the sense of...each year I try to highlight music that you may not otherwise hear around Christmas. We do a lot of standards, but some are so old, you would never hear them anywhere else," he said.

He highlighted the work of Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century composer of chant, that the choir will perform in Latin. They will also be performing music from the medieval period, then entering into the renaissance period and then some music from the 20th century, such as John Tavener's, The Lamb.

"It's a real smorgasbord program, which it always is, but this year, possibly even more so," he said.

The one thing that won't change is closing out the concert with the singing of Oh Come All Ye Faithful, when those in attendance are invited to join in.

The final show of the year is Handel's Messiah. This is the second year for this event, produced by Lucyk.

"We get emerging artists to come together. It starts out with a two-day intensive rehearsal in Mahone Bay, then we do three concerts," she said. "We call it 'Messiah on the Go' because it is really a tight-knit team with about 20 or 21 performers altogether. Normally, when you hear this, you have your vocal soloists and your choir and sometimes it's a large choir and a large orchestra....but this is really like a one-per-part. Soloists are singing in the choruses during this, so it's very integrated and everybody gets involved. It's really fun and I'm thrilled that we're able to put it together again this year and have it in Lunenburg."

She said last year's event was so much fun and recalls a moment that she will never forget.

"I do a lot of different concerts. Once in awhile you will have a special moment that really strikes you as being beyond a normal concert stage," he said. "What we do is a sing-along for the Hallelujah chorus. Last year, as an experiment, we had like an open rehearsal for the song, 30 minutes before each concert with everyone taking part. Everybody was coming in at the start and some people I think had intended on coming to be a part of the rehearsal.

"But some were just coming in to take their seats and sort of got thrown into being a part of this open rehearsal. At the end everyone was standing and we were kind of dispersed through the church singing with them. To have St. John's full of people and have everybody singing this together, it was really unforgettable."

Musique Royale is a province-wide music presenter in Nova Scotia. Since its founding in 1985, Musique Royale has brought world class music to venues of architectural and historic significance across the province.

Hear symphony orchestras and chorus' in beautiful churches and salon-style events, with children-friendly shows encompassing jazz, world, classical, and more.