The First Universalist Church and Society of Barnard, located at 6211 Route 12, will host BarnArts 12th annual winter carols at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 16. The event is free with donations welcome to offset costs. There will also be a bonus outdoor BarnArts Chorale performance on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. on the Woodstock Green to share the music with a larger audience. In addition, the outdoor sing will include a few familiar carols led by BarnArts Youth, with audience participation.
“Winter Carols” is directed by Michael Zsoldos. The Friday night event includes performances by local musicians as well as a performance by BarnArts Youth and the BarnArts Chorale. Zsoldos has been rehearsing with 29 singers since mid-November to bring this celebration of the season to our community. Performers will test before the event and audience members are required to wear masks as sing-alongs are included.
Singing this year are sopranos: Willow Carr, Annabel Cellini, Debby Colgan, Anne Dean, Bitsy Harley, Marian Koetsier, Gaby LaRoche, Elizabeth Linsley, Kathy Mahoney; altos: Barbara Abraham, Alden, Anna Alden, Cassidy Metcalf, Jane Metcalf, Lisa Milligan, Sara Norcross, Carin Park, Alice Roberts, Deborah Rice, Linda Treash, Sally Zwain; tenors: Kathleen Dolan, Joanna Kell, Cathy Kwiecinski, Tambrey Vutech; basses: Chris Cassell, Tyler Harwell, Claes Mattsson, Mark van Gulden.
Singing with BarnArts Youth this year will be Jasper Cota, Nat Holland, Alma Ringenberg, Joan Ringenberg, Anabelle Park and Charlie Park.
The Friday evening performance will feature a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar choral repertoire including the “Ukrainian Bell Carol” by Leontovich, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Ives, “In Dulci Jubilo” arranged by Michael Praetorius, “There is No Rose” by Benjamin Britten, “The Crown of Roses” by Tchaikovsky, and “The First Nowell” arranged by David Willcocks. Many of these songs will also be sung outdoors on Saturday.
The indoor event also includes musical performances. Michael Zsoldso will pick up his sax for an interlude of instrumental woodwind melodies. He is joined this year by Stephen Stuntz on the guitar. The local string group Trifolium (Andy Mueller, Justin Park & Chloe Powell) will play a medley of traditional music, swapping harmonies as smoothly as they swap instruments. Trifolium’s set this year will be a tribute to the Vermont fiddler icon Pete Sutherland and Conductor Michael Zsoldos lives in Woodstock with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Laszlo. He is a senior lecturer in the music department at Dartmouth College where he teaches beginning music theory, jazz & classical saxophone, and directs the performance lab in jazz improvisation. He is also the instrumental arranger for the Dartmouth College Gospel Choir and Dartmouth Idol. Zsoldos is also on the faculties of Interplay Jazz and Arts, the Upper Valley Music Center, and the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro. His tenor and soprano saxophone playing is prominently featured on a recently released album with Jason Ennis, titled “Jota Sete.”
