The holidays are here, and just because we can’t get all dressed up and go out like we usually do doesn’t mean we can’t have a little joy to help ring in the season.
Cue Durango Choral Society.
This holiday season, DCS, helmed by Director/Conductor Linda Mack Berven, is bringing its annual holiday show to you with its virtual show, “Joy: A Traditional Family Christmas.” It comes on the heels of DCS’s online program “Comfort: Songs of Home, Hope and Happiness,” which was released in October, and which, Mack Berven said, hit a chord with viewers.
“We were just shocked by how many people – hundreds of people watched the concerts,” she said. “We had viewers from South Africa, from Japan, Australia, from Ireland. It made me realize how much people need music.”
“Joy!” will be released at 3 p.m. Dec. 6 and will be available for viewing all the way through the holidays to New Year’s Day. Like its fall counterpart, viewers may pay anything from $5 on up.
And like “Comfort,” “Joy!” is made up of a ton of different elements seamlessly edited into one show. Mack Berven kicks things off with a preconcert talk, where she discusses concert selections and how the process of putting it all together worked. The show itself will include a smorgasbord of holiday songs: Keep an eye out for Jeff Solon and his jazz musicians; the “Hallelujah Chorus”; piano duets from the “Nutcracker” featuring Mack Berven and Amy Barrett, director of the Durango Children’s Chorale and the Durango Youth Chorus; and the most requested song of all, “O Holy Night.”
And, of course, a visit from the big guy – who may or may not have a bit of a wardrobe malfunction during the show (in a family friendly way, of course.).
There will also be an online program booklet to keep track of things and the selections will be tracked so that you can repeat your favorite pieces.
“Joy!” is meant to get us in the holiday spirit, and laughter and good times will be aplenty. But, Mack Berven said, there’s a little bit of sadness that comes with it, too – not because of the show’s contents, but because of what we’ve all been through since March.
“After I put the whole program together and we watched it, we were all crying,” she said. “So yeah, there is a tinge of sadness. There’s a tinge of just longing to see people. But this is the best we can do, and I really think this will perk everybody up and give them some semblance of normalcy and holiday spirit.”
And even though the holidays may look totally different this year, traditions will help get us through, Mack Berven said.
“Think of the traditions that have been around for hundreds of years, families around the piano at Christmas, or Durango – all these years, we have offered a traditional family Christmas,” she said. “We have missed out on so much this year in every element of our lives, at least this is something we can give people that maybe can relieve some of the pain we’ve all felt this whole year.”
katie@durangoherald.com
To watch
What:
Durango Choral Society annual “Joy! A Traditional Family Christmas.”
When:
Show will be released at 3 p.m. Dec. 6 and will remain online through New Year’s Day.
Where:
Online at durangochoralsociety.org.
Admission:
Tickets start at $5 and will be available at
durangochoralsociety.org/schedule
.
More information:
Visit
.
