Mad River Chorale presents a virtual holiday concert

December 18, 2020  |   By Waterbury Roundabout 

The Mad River Chorale singers perform a traditional holiday concert. This year’s production uses a new video format due to the pandemic. Courtesy file photo.

The Mad River Chorale will debut its first-ever virtual concert titled “Towards the Light” on Monday, Dec. 21, at 7:30 p.m. 

The concert will be available to view on the chorale’s website, madriverchorale.net, through January so those who can’t see it immediately will still have an opportunity to tune in. 

Conductor Mary Jane Austin said, “Although I realize this won’t be possible for everyone, I hope many usual audience members, along with distant friends of the chorale and the singers themselves, will join together to watch this historic event at 7:30 on the 21st so we can capture the feeling of attending a concert together with family and friends.”

Austin has focused her belief in the critical need for music at this difficult time, to direct an intensive program of teaching the singers not just the songs on the program, but also the technology to make their individual recordings of each piece so that video engineer Tim Joy of Middlebury could put them together into a holiday show.

Mad River Chorale has put on a December holiday concert every year since 1993. In this 28th year, the group was determined not to disappoint its loyal audience. The program will consist of a number of seasonal favorites performed by choral members together and in small ensembles. There will still be the usual sing-along carols as well as the final group singing of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah.” 

There are no tickets but there will be an online opportunity to make a donation. Visit madriverchorale.net starting Friday, Dec. 18, to see and print the concert program. 

At 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 21 the concert video will go up on the site.