The newly formed Crozet Community Chorus held its first public concert, Songs of the Season, December 4 at Crozet Baptist Church on St. George Avenue.
Chorus music director Jeremy Thompson introduced the program to the crowd, calling it “challenging.”
“But they worked hard and rose to the challenge,” he went on.
The opening half had eight songs, featuring Felix Mendelssohn’s How Lovely Are the Messengers. There were two selections from Handel’s Messiah, and three Christmas standards—“Bing Crosby crooner-style but with jazzier arrangements,” said Thompson, before intermission.
The singing was pretty polished for a debut group. They seemed to care and to be happy trying their best. The chorus seems to have lifted off.
Thompson called special attention to the pianist, Tracey Schimmel Reed, who was superb.
“It’s a good sign when you come back from intermission and the audience is still there,” quipped Thompson to start the second half. That had six songs lead by O Magnum Mysterium, about the witness of animals at the Nativity, with Mary Did You Know following. At an appropriate moment in Sleigh Ride, chorus organizer Sandy Hodges let out a convincing whinny that Thompson, at least, wasn’t expecting. Nobody dropped a beat as it was heard above all else, but hearts around the room were lifted. It was fun.
The packed sanctuary at Crozet Baptist stood and applauded at the end of the show.
The chorus hosted a reception afterward in the fellowship hall, where the singers and audience members snacked on cake and cheered on the spirit of success that filled the room.
