Carol Concerts

This past weekend was a whirl-wind! On Friday morning, December 7, I played in a small handbell choir at St. Christopher’s. It was my first handbell experience, and it was lots of fun. I enjoyed it because a few of the youth that worship there played with us, and they don’t have any kind of Sunday school or youth group or anything, and so it really seemed like something nice for all of the youth to get to do together. Plus, not all of them are involved in music, and so it was nice to see some of them doing a musical activity. We basically just played a simple version of “Silent Night”, but the congregation was really appreciative. We didn’t do a perfect job; there were definitely parts that didn’t go as well as others. But God didn’t call us to make perfect music, He called us to make a joyful noise, and I think that’s what we did.

After our service, Michael, Lois, Charles and I had to head over to the Golden Tulip hotel for our Manama Singers rehearsal! We practiced with them for a few hours, and then I went home and completely crashed! After attending Dana’s wedding the night before, and waking up early for handbells, having a two and a half hour long rehearsal was completely exhausting.

Our first carol concert was at 5pm, and we had a full crowd with lots of small children there. I was given three different small solos and while I became nervous right before I sang the first verse of “Once in Royal”, the nerves were gone for the rest of the concert. Right before our intermission, we had all of the children in the audience come up and sing “Away in a Manger” with us. There was a huge mob of them, so it was just a tad bit overwhelming! Then we passed out bells and tambourines and they played them while we sang “Jingle Bells.” At the end of Jingle Bells, Santa came to visit!! The children had the opportunity to visit with him while we took a small rest for intermission.

Our second concert was at 8pm and it was a much more quiet audience! There were only 6 children to sing “Away in a Manger” with us, and our director, Alister, said “what a nice, well-behaved group of children!” And they were, especially compared to the 5pm crowd. After the second concert, a man from Business Communication Services (our generous sponsor) told me he really enjoyed hearing my solo voice and hopes to hear me in future concerts. That was really encouraging to hear! It’s easy to perform Christmas Carols artistically because they are in English, and they talk about the birth of our Saviour!

This Christmas concert was extremely special to me because there were some favorites from several of my choral experiences throughout my life. From high school, being in Sabe’s choir, there was Holst’s “Lullay My Liking”, Taverner “The Lamb”, and “In the Bleak Mid-Winter.” From my college choir, there was “See Amid the Winter’s Snow”, “The Boar’s Head”, and “Ding-Dong.” Plus, we sang “The Angel’s Carol”, which is one of my ultimate favorite John Rutter anthems. So, it was especially nice to be so far away from home and singing songs that are so close to my heart. You can imagine, however, that it was hard for me to be so far from home and not have my family sharing the experience with me. It was such an emotional let-down! I was pretty depressed for most of Saturday and also just exhausted from a tiring weekend.

Lukily, Sunday came along. After our two concerts on Friday, we also sang two on Sunday, December 9. The first was to accompany a beautiful evening service of lessons and carols at St. Christopher’s Cathedral. It was definitely a highlight of the season for me. We sang a lot of nice sacred carols that we didn’t get a chance to do at our Christmas concerts. I especially enjoyed “Of the Father’s Heart Begotten.” All of the readings were in King James and it was altogether a really formal service. Since the service was rather early, I was starving by the time that we were done.

We all hopped into cars and made our way to the Dlimun Club, where we ate a nice buffet-style Christmas dinner! I was so starving by then (it was after 8pm) that I ate really fast. What a nice way to begin our gig at the club! After we had all eaten lots and several of the choir members had had their share of booze, we got up and sang a really informal concert. It was nice; the audience sang along on several songs. When we sang "Jingle Bells", they clanged their glasses and it was just such a good time. I really felt like I was with family at that point, and it was nice to celebrate with them. Of course, I was kind of sad today when I went into school because I knew that it was all over. There are many other concerts to come, and so I'm just going to remind myself of that!