LITTLE CURRENT/MINDEMOYA—The Island Singers, under the direction of Dorothy Anstice, made an impressively big, and as always tuneful, sound with their annual Christmas chorale presented the first Sunday evening of December at Little Current United Church and Monday evening at Mindemoya Missionary Church.
The choir has swelled to 28 voices and the strong harmonies filled each of the concert spaces to the delight of the people fortunate enough to be part of the audiences.
The concert, titled ‘The Winter Rose’ (also the title of the final choral piece) featured some of the usual voices in solo roles (Heather Theijsmeijer) and Karen Doughty, Ann-Marie Scott and Chris Theijsmeijer in a trio.
But new for this concert was singer/violinist Ashlyn Cooper who stepped out of the choir and picked up her violin three times during the concert, accompanying piano accompanist Holly Scott for Ave Maria and, in the Advent Prayer, performing a tuneful descant to the choir’s harmony.
Ms. Cooper participated in an instrumental duet with sister-in-law, Samantha Cooper, who took over the piano bench for Elgar’s Chanson de Matin.
That same piano felt the force of four hands when Marilyn Wohlberg came down from the tenor section to assist Holly Scott in accompanying the choir in ‘Ding! Dong! Merrily on High,’ focussing on the keyboard’s higher register for a delightful diversion.
Ms. Anstice and the talented musicians of The Island Singers are to be congratulated for a delightful evening of seasonal music, appropriately enough (in the case of the first performance at Little Current) on December 1, which also happened to be the first Sunday of the Advent season.
