The 50-plus member choir will be performing new songs and some holiday classics on Sunday, Dec. 10, and the following Saturday, Dec. 16. Singer Mary Gootjes says both concerts begin at 7 p.m. at Park City Community Church.
“Tickets are going to be $20 for adults $5 for kids, and you can go on our website at ParkCitySingers.org and buy tickets or you can buy tickets at the door,” Gootjes said.
Joe Demers is the group’s musical director and says they’ve been practicing every week since September with some putting in even more practice.
“We practiced every Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.,” Demer said. “But then, as we progress through the season, we had some extra rehearsal time before that 7 p.m. time for breakout groups, which we had to have this year. They’ll be singing ‘Mary Had a Baby,’ and ‘Santa Baby.’ And so, they would come at 6:15 or 6:30 and they would practice their breakout song, and then the rest would join us 7 p.m.”
Demer says there’s much more in store in addition to those break-out songs.
“For people who love ‘The Nutcracker,’ we've got a special rendition of that integrates ‘Jingle Bells,’ he said. “So, it's a fun one, and the choir loves it. I think the audience will enjoy it too. And then we also have ‘Here Comes Santa Claus,’ ‘We Need a Little Christmas.’ We have some classical pieces, festival songitudes, African ‘Hallelujah,’ pieces that have a lot of complex rhythms and timings in them. So, the choir’s worked really hard to get those down, as I have to in conducting it.”
Gootjes says the program is lively and spirited.
“We've got a couple of beautiful spirituals,” she said. “We're doing ‘Go Tell it on a Mountain.’ And we've got a group doing ‘Mary Had a Baby’ with a beautiful tenor solo by Larry Iram. And we've got an interesting song called ‘Merry Christmas Darling’ from the ‘70s, written by Richard Carpenter and ‘Sung’ by The Carpenters. So that kind of brings back some memories for those of us who were around in the ‘70s.”
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and seating is first come, first served.
Here is the link to purchase tickets.