Salt Spring Singers have an extra special treat to deliver to audiences this weekend when they present their last concert of 2023 at All Saints by-the-Sea.
Running Saturday, Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m., the first half of Songs for a Winter’s Night puts the musical focus on celebrating the winter season, rather than Christmas specifically.
“There are a lot of wonderful composers that have provided choral music along that theme,” said Singers director Don Conley. “So we have songs about the wonder of winter, songs about winter lullabies, and different medieval songs that talk about winter, going back to Thomas Tallis, an English composer, using some of his music and some madrigals as well.”
The concert’s second half is a tribute to the legendary Gordon Lightfoot, who died earlier this year.
Since Singers concerts typically involve some humour, the audience will enjoy a piece called Various Themes on Fa-La-La, which weaves famous orchestral pieces into the Deck the Halls tune.
Another piece, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams, will be familiar, and a few lovely pieces by renowned choral composers will gain new fans. Those include Morten Lauridson’s Sure on This Shining Night, a luscious piece set to a James Agee poem, and The Rose, a composition by Ola Gjeilo, whose works are among the most popular in new choral music.
For something completely different, two tango dancers will grace the stage when the group performs Greg Gilpin’s Holiday Tango piece.
The Lightfoot tribute has the choir singing Lightfoot’s Pussywillows, Cat-Tails, and Song for a Winter’s Night. Well-known local singer-songwriter Peter Prince will lead the presentation of four other popular Lightfoot songs — Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Early Morning Rain, Steel Rail Blues and If You Could Read My Mind — with the audience invited to sing the choruses and some verses. Deb Smith will play bass and Singers accompanist Ben Neufeld will be on keyboards for that section.
Tickets for the shows are sold in advance through ArtSpring and at the door, if space permits.