For the Bulletin
Kimberley United Church will host a concert featuring the cantata, “A Child Is Born,” a retelling of the familiar Christmas story through song and word. Lyrics and music for this work were written and composed by Kimberley United Church accompanist-music director, Terry Macham. The cantata consists of ten original choral pieces written in a variety of musical styles varying from 60’s “rock” to contemporary “pop.” A few traditional “classical” music style pieces are included as well.
There will be several opportunities to hear and enjoy the cantata “A Child Is Born.” Saturday, December 13th, 7:30 pm, Kimberley United Church will present “A Christmas Festival of Song and Music” featuring “A Child Is Born.” The concert evening will be complemented with seasonal musical selections by other local performers that include the Barbershop Quartet - “Sound Principle,” Dave Carlson and Carol Fergus, and Marta Zeegers accompanied by Arne Sahlen. Admission is by donation.
“A Child Is Born” will also be performed at Kimberley United during their worship service on Sunday, December 14 at 10 a.m. and again later that day in Grasmere.
A final performance will be held at Christ Church-Trinity in Invermere on Sunday, January 4, 2015. Both out-of-town performances will start at 2 p.m.
“A Child Is Born” is Terry’s third composition in this musical genre although he may be better known to local theatre-goers as the composer of a number of early Kimberley Summer Theatre productions including “The Canterville Ghost” and “Fool’s Gold.” He also wrote original songs for his version of “Dickens’ – A Christmas Carol” which has been produced in Kimberley on three separate occasions. And he composed the incidental music for the Bard-In-Your-Own-Backyard production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliette.”
The cantata choir is made up from members of the regular Kimberley United Church Choir along with a number of the Kimberley Community Choir plus additional singers from the United Church congregation and individuals from the wider local community.
What is a Cantata anyway? Cantata is from the Italian, “cantare,” meaning, “to sing.” A Cantata is a musical work for voice(s) with instrumental accompaniment. The Cantata was developed in 18th century Italy along with its close relatives, the oratorio and opera. A Cantata consists of a number of musical movements or songs interspersed with prose readings, which together tell a story that may be either secular or sacred in nature. Most modern sacred cantatas are based on either the Christmas or Easter story. The individual songs or movements are separated and introduced by read passages of scripture although original prose is sometimes employed.