Ceremony of Carols

I’ve had such as exciting holiday season, performing at churches, parties, businesses, hospitals, and retirement communities! It has truly been a joyful holiday, and I’m so blessed to have had the opportunity to perform for so many festive events! On Sunday, December 21, I performed for the morning Christmas pageant and evening candlelight service at Corinth Reformed Church in Hickory. At the morning service, I performed prelude and special music with my cousin, Savannah Sowers. She is a talented violinist and a freshman at Hickory High School. I am looking forward to performing with Savannah at more events in the future! At the evening service, I accompanied the chamber choir and string ensemble on Norman Luboff’s arrangement of Still Still Still; Bruce Greer’s arrangement of Mary, Did You Know? by Lowry/Green; and John Rutter’s Candlelight Carol. There is no written harp part for the Candlelight Carol, but Peter Corneliussen, Director of Music at Corinth (and a gifted composer) wrote a harp part for me to perform at the service. I was excited to premiere this harp part at the candlelight service, and will be sure to save it for future engagements! It is always a pleasure to work with Peter and the talented musicians at Corinth.

On December 24, I performed at a beautiful Christmas Eve service at First United Methodist Church in Morganton. I had the pleasure of working with Amalie Hinson, Director of Music, who put together a dynamic service of diverse musical ensembles, including performances using voice, harp, flute, recorder, organ, piano, drums, and other percussion instruments. It was truly a treat to hear holiday music performed using such a variety of instrumentation. I accompanied the chamber choir on John Rutter’s Carol of the Children and Hal Hopson’s arrangement of Noel Nouvelet. I also performed Hal Hopson’s arrangements of the congregational hymns O Come All Ye Faithful and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It was truly a pleasure to work with Amalie and the other talented musicians at First United Methodist.

Afterwards, I drove to my second performance of the evening. I performed Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with the chamber choir at Saint Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church in Blowing Rock. The Ceremony of Carols is a famous work for chamber choir and harp, and progresses over twelve short movements. I had so much fun working with James Bumgardner, Director of Music, and the talented choir at Saint Mary’s. I’d like to extend a special thank you to David Dauphine for his support. As a contestant (and eventual 1st runner-up) in the 2008 Miss South Carolina pageant, David stepped forward to serve as one of my pageant sponsors based on the promise that I would come perform at Saint Mary’s. I was delighted to honor his request. It was truly an amazing experience to work with such a talented group of musicians and to be part of such a beautiful Christmas Eve performance!