Presented by the Amabile Boys & Men’s Choirs and the Amabile Chamber Choir, I’ll Be Home For Christmas shares Christmas favourites from our past to celebrate our 35th Anniversary season – from the Polar Express to A Marshmallow World.
In a packed house at First-St. Andrew’s United Church on Saturday, December 14th, 2019 the Amabile Boys & Men’s Choir kicked off the second Holiday Concert with the beautiful ‘Wolcum Yole’ – a song that was once sung 30 years ago when the Amabile Boys’ Choir was just starting out. From there on it was an evening of beautiful memories and melodies as we made our way through the setlist comprised of songs Amabile has performed over the last three decades. Fond memories included, ‘Rise Up Shepard’ that had us smiling and laughing, as we remember and dedicated it to co-founder Bevan Keating.
Saturday night’s performance included the premiere of ‘Snow,’ written by our very own Mark Payne! ‘Snow’ is one of the first pieces to be done as part of the Amabile Celebration Series – a set of 10 commissioned pieces that will be premiered throughout the season in honour of the 35th Anniversary.
And who could forget the moments we were always waiting for at Amabile Concerts: the Audience Sing-A-Long! Together the audience, conducted by Mark Payne and Carol Beynon led us through the classic holiday carols of ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ and ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas,’ that had us all laughing and smiling. You could truly feel the holiday spirit in the air as the Amabile Boys and Men’s Choirs, the Amabile Chamber Choir led us through the final song of the night of ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas.’
Congratulations to our 50/50 Draw winner Claudia Day!
To pull together and make this event a success requires the work of so many people. We would like to thank our Artistic Directors and Artistic Staff for all their hard work: Carol Beynon, Brenda Zadorsky, Mark Payne, Jeff Beynon, Don Sills, Lydia Kendell and John Vermue; our accompanists for their wonderful playing: Rosemary Bannerman, Denise Jung, Tristin Hill and Ronald Fox. To all our singers – you all are immensely talented and thank you for your time and dedication to your craft; with a special thank you to our guest soloist Richard Traczuk, who performed a beautiful rendition of ‘O Holy Night.’
To our Choir Executive Team and volunteers: thank you for your countless hours and dedication to making this (and all our events) successful.
Finally, thank you to everyone who came out tonight to support our choirs!
Your support means the world to us and we are sincerely grateful.
