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Last Spring the Monashee Chamber Choir and Orchestra performed Handel’s Dixit Dominus with such success they thought it was time for them to do his magnificent Oratorio, The Messiah. So on March 5 and 6 they will perform the Messiah in the style in which it was first presented in Dublin on Easter in 1742.
It will be a magnificent baroque concert, full of passion, pathos and power, with heart-rending melodies, magnificent choruses and splendid fugues.
The choir and orchestra will be the same size as in Dublin and the conductor, Cees Kooyman, is eager to do the work, "I’m a Messiah man," he says. The accompanist, Jim Johnston, is also eager to play Handel’s role at the harpsichord. The soloists, as Handel insisted, will be singing with the choir and and will all be local artists. The orchestra will be the strings players from the Dixit Dominus plus other players from Cees Kooyman’s Salmon Arm Community Band.
The Messiah will be performed at the Cornerstone Christian Reformed Church in Salmon Arm. on Saturday, Mar. 5 at 7:30 p.m. and again on March 6, at 2 p.m. Call Mike Gentles at 250-836-2763 for ticket info.