The Uniting Church and St Peter’s Anglican Cathedral will be teaming up this Christmas to bring a combined churches’ choir festival to ignite the festive spirit in Armidale.
Inspired by Kings College Chapel’s Festival of Lessons and Carols, a presentation introduced almost 100 years ago in Cambridge, local musicians and a choir of more than 60 voices will perform for the community.
Music conductor and designs the order of service, David Gee said the combined performances first began in Armidale in 1989.
“It’s not just the Uniting church production, it’s a combined church production that we happen to centre it here [at Uniting],” Mr Gee said.
The event unites members from other churches and most denominations across the Armidale community, Mr Gee said.
“It’s a festival of lessons and carols as fashioned on the Kings College carols from Cambridge,” he said.
“Some of these involve the congregation singing while others are performances by the choir.
“The bigger songs like Hark the Herald and First Noel are accompanied by the choir, the organ and a team of four trumpets.
“They’re playing David Wilcox arrangements … he was the one who really put these services on the map.”
David Wilcox was a British choral conductor, composer, organist and director of the Royal College of Music in London.
“His arrangements of church music, that he arranged for his choir, is recognised as the height of the art of English traditional Cathedral church music throughout the world,” Mr Gee said.
“People from the community and the church will be singing in the choir.
“There will be over 60 people in the choir.”
The event will be spread across two separate services which will both be held the weekend before Christmas, on Sunday December 18.
The first service will be held at the Armidale Uniting Church commencing at 9:30am while the second service will kick off from 7:00pm at St Peter’s Cathedral.
Everyone from the community is welcome to attend the Festival of Lessons and Carols.
