The St. John’s Men’s Chorus and Handbell Ensemble will present a free concert at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6, St. John’s Lutheran Church, 200 W. Innes Street, as part of the church’s “Hanging of the Greens” festivities.
Special guest soloist for this performance will be Madeline MacNeil, vocalist and hammered dulcimer player who has performed at arts centers and universities throughout the United States.
Across the Atlantic, she has performed at the O’Carolan Festival in Keadue, County Roscommon, Ireland; the Glasgow Festival of the Arts in Scotland; and for the Nonsuch Dulcimer Gathering in East Norton, Leicestershire, England. For several years she was a touring artist under the sponsorship of the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She is a best-selling author of mountain and hammered dulcimer books for Mel Bay Publications and has recorded numerous CDs through the years.
In 2005 MacNeil was recognized as a Content Consultant for an exhibit of dulcimers and their scheitholt ancestors at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, Va. She performed background vocals for a national Public Television two-part documentary film, To Our Credit. In 2006 Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, featured in To Our Credit, won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to help impoverished countries gain democracy and human rights.
The St. John’s Men’s Chorus is directed by Rosemary C. Kinard, associate parish musician at St. John’s. Janie R. Rollins serves as accompanist for the group.
The concert will include many favorites such as “Ave Maria,” “Mary, Did You Know?” “Away in a Manger,” “Silent Night,” “I Wonder as I Wander,” “In the Bleak Midwinter,””Lo, How a Rose,” “What Child is This,” “Ding Dong Merrily on High,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and other selections. A special feature of the program will be two works composed for the Men’s Chorus by Robert J. Durocher, director of music ministries at St. John’s.
Soloists for the performance are David Agner, Ralph Hair, David Hall, Doug Kearney, Darrell Norris, Randy Overcash, Dennis Rogers, Norman Sloop, Mike Weddington, and Donny Yost.
The St. John’s Handbell Ensemble, directed by Robert Durocher, will also play several selections before and during the concert. Members of the ensemble are Joyce Beaver, Donna Beilfuss, Betty Brown, Leslie Durocher, Susan Myers, Kathy Norris, Andrew Pope, Susan Shinn, Missy Shives, Amanda Tomeini, and Henry Trexler.
Members of the Men’s Chorus who are first tenors: Rob Durocher, Doug Kearney, Darrell Norris, Norman Sloop, Bob Tannehill, Julius Waggoner, Mike Weddington, and Donny Yost; second tenors: David Agner, Mark Brown, Gene Bruce, David Foreman, Stan Jordan, Karl Kinard, Dennis Rogers, Mitch Siegel, Gary Taylor, Dan Waggoner and Rhodes Woolly; baritones: David Alexander, Lane Brown, Gattis Bullard, Ralph Hair, Parker Hatchett, Randy Overcash, Dick Reitz, and David Roof; and basses: Willi Beilfuss, Clancy Bostian, Dan Brown, Jim Epperson, Frank Goodnight, David Hall, Tony Herrin, Bob Meyers, David Nelson, Ron Potts, Gordon Senter, Jerry Spencer, and Henry Trexler.
The Men’s Chorus was formed in 1994 as a part of the fellowship ministry at St. John’s. It quickly grew into a community group, composed of men from the Salisbury-Rowan area who enjoy singing all styles of music ó from classic sacred choral literature to spirituals to patriotic selection to barbershop arrangements. The group rehearses on Sunday afternoons in the fall and spring, and performs for many local events, local and out-of-town churches, civic events, and many concerts to benefit the Crisis Council’s Battered Women’s Shelter and the Rowan Helping Ministries.
A free-will offering will be received during the intermission to benefit Rowan Helping Ministries, and the performance will conclude with a carol singalong for the audience.