The Murphysboro High School Choir, along with the Carbondale High School Choir, will present A Taste of Christmas concert on Dec. 12 at 5 p.m., and Dec. 13 at 2 p.m.
The concert will be held in the MHS cafeteria. Tickets are $10, and will go on sale at the high school office after the Thanksgiving break.
In past years, the Murphysboro High School choir has presented a Madrigal dinner, and there will be a taste of that this year.
"We are doing more like a Christmas tea, so dessert items and beverages will be served,'' said MHS choir director Kathy Manfredi. "Our students will be dressed in the Madrigal costumes, and we will be decorating the room more or less like a mid-evil castle like we normally do for Madrigal."
A Taste of Christmas will be more extensive than a normal choir concert might be.
"This will be an hour to an hour-and-a-half,'' Manfredi said. "It will feature our choir, as well as the CCHS choir."
Those attending will hear some different types of music from the MHS choir.
"It's actually a very wide variety,'' Manfredi said. "We have everything from mid-evil Renaissance music to very modern pieces. I try to feature as many as soloists as possible, and we have several in the choir with absolutely beautiful voices that will be singing different solos. And, we'll have a couple of funny songs.
"One of those is the '12 Days After Christmas', which talks about what Lady Love is doing with all of the gifts she receives from her Romeo."
Manfredi said that she chooses the music for concert carefully, and she also carefully decides when each piece will be heard by the audience.
"The pieces that have more serious thought behind them I try to put more in the front,'' Manfredi said. "I also try to balance in terms of tempo. I try to balance between the loud and the soft so that the human ear isn't being bombarded three or four songs in a row with something really loud and fast. There's a little bit more variety, and I think it helps to balance the entire program.
"Most of the time if I have a song that features a small group of students I will put in the middle to give my entire choir a little bit of a break. I'll feature a soloist or two, or a quartet in the middle. Then I usually end with the faster, funnier, ones just to lighten the mood a little bit at the end of the concert."
Manfredi, who also teaches the Murphysboro Middle School choir, said that the MHS choir and the Carbondale choir were looking forward to singing together. However, that is not likely to happen at this concert.
Both choirs have been invited to travel to Italy to take part in the International Music Festival, and Carbondale's choir hosted a Halloween concert featuring both choirs as a fundraiser. Now, Murphysboro will host this concert to help raise funds for the trip.
"We had hoped that we would sing together,'' Manfredi said. "But our schedules are both so busy. The week we come back from Thanksgiving I have five performances in three days. That's actually before we get to A Taste of Christmas. It's very difficult. We intended to have the choirs sing together, but I don't think it's going to work for this season.
"We are going to do, maybe a Valentine's dinner together, and hopefully we will have some songs that we will do as a larger group."
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The Murphysboro High School Choir, along with the Carbondale High School Choir, will present A Taste of Christmas concert on Dec. 12 at 5 p.m., and Dec. 13 at 2 p.m.
The concert will be held in the MHS cafeteria. Tickets are $10, and will go on sale at the high school office after the Thanksgiving break.
In past years, the Murphysboro High School choir has presented a Madrigal dinner, and there will be a taste of that this year.
"We are doing more like a Christmas tea, so dessert items and beverages will be served,'' said MHS choir director Kathy Manfredi. "Our students will be dressed in the Madrigal costumes, and we will be decorating the room more or less like a mid-evil castle like we normally do for Madrigal."
A Taste of Christmas will be more extensive than a normal choir concert might be.
"This will be an hour to an hour-and-a-half,'' Manfredi said. "It will feature our choir, as well as the CCHS choir."
Those attending will hear some different types of music from the MHS choir.
"It's actually a very wide variety,'' Manfredi said. "We have everything from mid-evil Renaissance music to very modern pieces. I try to feature as many as soloists as possible, and we have several in the choir with absolutely beautiful voices that will be singing different solos. And, we'll have a couple of funny songs.
"One of those is the '12 Days After Christmas', which talks about what Lady Love is doing with all of the gifts she receives from her Romeo."
Manfredi said that she chooses the music for concert carefully, and she also carefully decides when each piece will be heard by the audience.
"The pieces that have more serious thought behind them I try to put more in the front,'' Manfredi said. "I also try to balance in terms of tempo. I try to balance between the loud and the soft so that the human ear isn't being bombarded three or four songs in a row with something really loud and fast. There's a little bit more variety, and I think it helps to balance the entire program.
"Most of the time if I have a song that features a small group of students I will put in the middle to give my entire choir a little bit of a break. I'll feature a soloist or two, or a quartet in the middle. Then I usually end with the faster, funnier, ones just to lighten the mood a little bit at the end of the concert."
Manfredi, who also teaches the Murphysboro Middle School choir, said that the MHS choir and the Carbondale choir were looking forward to singing together. However, that is not likely to happen at this concert.
Both choirs have been invited to travel to Italy to take part in the International Music Festival, and Carbondale's choir hosted a Halloween concert featuring both choirs as a fundraiser. Now, Murphysboro will host this concert to help raise funds for the trip.
"We had hoped that we would sing together,'' Manfredi said. "But our schedules are both so busy. The week we come back from Thanksgiving I have five performances in three days. That's actually before we get to A Taste of Christmas. It's very difficult. We intended to have the choirs sing together, but I don't think it's going to work for this season.
"We are going to do, maybe a Valentine's dinner together, and hopefully we will have some songs that we will do as a larger group."
