Sounds_easter

Jeff Green | Feb 12, 2009

Music director Annabelle Twiddy

Along with the choir of Harrowsmith and Verona, which has 25 members, Annabelle is hoping to get another 15 or so singers from the community to join them.

As music director for the Harrowsmith and Verona United Churches pastoral charge she is very excited about the opportunity for local singers to join in song with a very well-established choir. “It’s going to be a fabulous way to start Easter Sunday; it’s going to be really good music and if we can get some people from this community to sing with the choir it’s going to be really great.”

The concert will take place at 7:00 am on Easter morning, Sunday April 12 at Trinity United Church in Verona.

In past years there has been a regular, outdoor, early morning sunrise Easter concert held at the lake in Verona but the numbers have dwindled steadily over the years. The idea for the new concert was suggested as an alternative and the congregations and choirs from Verona and Harrowsmith have enthusiastically jumped on board.

There will be a total of six practices over six weeks, which will be held at Trinity United church in Verona on Thursday evenings from 8:00-9:30 pm, beginning on March 5.

Annabelle explained her motivation. “Easter is the most important celebration of the Christian faith. We make a huge fuss about Christmas and we do Christmas for five or six weeks and we sing Christmas carols and hear them played everywhere. We do Easter for one day and it seems to me that if we do it for one day, it needs to be a very extraordinary day.”

Annabelle already has the music planned and the eight or nine new works will include modern arrangements of “From the Rising to the Setting of the Sun“, Gaither’s “Because He Lives“, “Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem“ and “Morning has Broken“ to name a few. She hopes to finish off the concert with the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Guest conductors John McDougall and Jennifer Bennett will lead the choir for a few of the numbers.

Donations will be accepted at the concert for the Canadian Food Grains Bank (CFGB), an interdenominational agency based in Winnipeg and supported by many of the local churches in the area. Headed by the central Mennonite Committee, the CFGB distributes food aid and related products world wide to people in distress. Their aim is to encourage food self-sufficiency and sustainability.

Being a farmer herself, the CFGB is an agency that Annabelle is well aware of and interested is supporting. She explained, “This agency represents us all and it is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency which matches our donations to the tune of 4 to 1, so our $1 donation becomes a $5 donation”.

Interested singers can call Annabelle Twiddy at 613-372-0603 or call the pastoral charge office at 613-372-2525 and leave a message. Singing experience is helpful.