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Community Carol Festival celebrates quarter-century mark with seven Nanaimo choirs

173 singers will perform traditional and contemporary holiday songs at St. Andrew’s United Church
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Members of A Cappella Plus as they rehearse at Wellington Secondary School on Nov. 24 in preparation for the Community Carol Festival in early December. (Mandy Moraes/News Bulletin)

This year’s Community Carol Festival will herald seven local choirs and 173 singers as they kick off the holiday season.

As an organizer for the event, and as the master of ceremonies, Linda Dier said this has been a year of revitalization for choirs in the community.

“Choirs came back and decided that they would get back on the horse and start riding again in the fall,” she said. “Most of them also performed last spring. So it’s been a year of rejuvenating and rebuilding.”

Over the pandemic, she said that many choirs significantly declined in membership, and so once they were allowed to gather and sing again, they had some serious rebuilding to do.

“And they’re still working at it,” Dier said.

The seven choirs performing in the carol festival will be the Harbour City Singers, directed by Lionel Tanod; the Nanaimo Youth Choir, directed by Marian Smith; the Island Bel Cantos Singers, directed by Fiona Blackburn; the Camerata Singers, directed by Lindsay Suddaby; the Sinclair Singers, directed by Sharon Sinclair; the Malaspina Choir, directed by Blackburn; and A Cappella Plus, directed by Patricia Plumley.

Each group will sing two numbers, with sing-along Christmas carols as they change led by the Nanaimo Youth Choir.

The original event organizer, Marian Smith, who has planned the festival since its inception a quarter of a century ago, will provide organ accompaniment for the singers.

“It’s just an amazing experience to sing Christmas carols accompanied by a pipe organ,” the emcee said. “And the whole evening ends with O Come All Ye Faithful – and it’s just so inspirational.”

The Community Carol Festival will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 7, at St. Andrew’s United Church, 311 Fitzwilliam St., starting at 7:30 p.m. with a reception to follow. Admission will be by donation, of no suggested amount, with proceeds shared between St. Andrew’s Church and the Salvation Army.

“The music being sung by the choir is a combination of traditional and more contemporary,” Dier said. “Everybody is so excited because this has always been the event that signalled the kickoff of the season – you go away with that warm, Christmassy feeling.”

READ MORE: Wonderheads whimsically re-imagine classic Christmas Carol


mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com

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Mandy Moraes

About the Author: Mandy Moraes

I joined Black Press Media in 2020 as a multimedia reporter for the Parksville Qualicum Beach News, and transferred to the News Bulletin in 2022
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