Most people aren’t thinking yet of the Christmas season, but the The Bulkley Valley Christmas Choir is. The musical group is forming again to start practising to bring their biannual concert to Smithers and are planning something different for this year’s lineup.
Music director Sharon Carrington said the choir wants to recreate their experience of singing at Carnegie Hall in New York last year and will once again perform Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living.
“The music is extraordinary,” she said. “I really loved the piece. The work was just too exquisite to only experience it once in Carnegie Hall — which was incredible. The piece was just meant to be shared.”
When the choir performed it previously they were accompanied by more than a hundred other musicians from all the other world, but this time there will be a few less musicians.
“We will bring our own flavour to it, but the people of the Bulkley Valley need the opportunity to listen to this work,” she added.
The choir is made up of people of all ages and different walks of life.
“It is an eclectic group and the common denominator is that they like to sing,” Carrington said.
She added people followed along when they were getting ready to perform in New York and now they are bringing back a little slice of their experience to share with the Bulkley Valley.
“It was very exciting for people in Smithers, we put Smithers on the map. As far as this little tiny town goes, we’ve got a group of people performing in Carnegie Hall and people hadn’t heard of Smithers and we are continuing this journey.”
The group also has plans to head to Italy in 2020.
“We can handle ourselves in the big league and we do just fine,” Carrington said.
Requiem plays Dec. 6-8 at Smithers Christian Reformed Church.
– with files from Trevor Hewitt
