The ethereal sounds of choir and orchestra will blend together this weekend.
The Foothills Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra are returning Dec. 9-10 for their Christmas concert Sing We Now of Christmas.
“The orchestra and chorus have a really nice place in people's hearts when it comes to Christmas memories and Christmas traditions,” said Tim Korthuis, director of the Foothills Philharmonic Society (FPS), under which both groups operate.
“People love hearing orchestra and choir at Christmas, it seems to have a cultural connection.”
The pieces selected for the concert are an array of beautiful and classic Christmas arrangements, from the choral classic Sleigh Ride to the symphonic Christmas Concerto by Arcangelo Corelli.
“The chorus is doing largely beautiful arrangements of Christmas carols,” Korthuis said. “The song Sing We Now of Christmas (the concert’s namesake) is choir and an oboe soloist, and we have another piece Wexford Carol that has a cello soloist.”
Over the years since each groups’ inception, the Christmas concerts have always been a major success.
“They've just been such a beautiful experience when you’ve got Christmas decorations, the snow outside,” Korthuis said.
“The chorus and orchestra many seasons ago realized Christmas was just a beautiful time to combine these two ensembles together.”
The society has been regaining its footing since COVID, slowly but surely.
“This season we’re seeing our numbers continue to grow, our audience numbers continue to grow as people process these seasons in their own time,” Korthuis said, adding the joy of music has helped lift him up.
“I’ve always had kind of two elements in it: one of them is making beautiful music with people I love.
“Once it starts coming together you get so excited at what we can do together; there’s one particular arrangement, Silent Night with chorus and orchestra, and when we brought it together everyone was like ‘That’s an incredibly gorgeous piece.’”
Sharing that joy with the audience is the other half of the winning recipe.
"The other part is performance, seeing it move people and move their hearts and bring joy in what has been a very heavy season for many people,” Korthuis said.
“That we can bring joy and passion and beauty to people's lives in the midst of what is still a very difficult season of life.”
The concert is on Dec. 9 at the High River Full Gospel Church and Dec. 10 at the Okotoks Alliance Church, both at 7:30 p.m.
For tickets and more information visit foothillsphilharmonic.com/concerts.
