Upcoming Good Friday concert in Sydenham

Mar 25, 2015

Once again local worshipers and music lovers will be treated to a special Good Friday concert where 30 singers from the choirs of the Harrowsmith Verona United Church Pastoral Charge and St. Paul's Anglican church in Sydenham, along with singers from the community will be performing John Staynor's, “The Crucifixion: A Mediation on the Sacred Passion of the Redeemer”.

The free concert will be conducted once again by Brad Barbeau, music director at St. Paul's Anglican church in Sydenham and the choir will be accompanied on organ by special musical guest Edward Norman, who has traveled once again from British Colombia, in part to play the concert.

Norman, who is a former organist at St. Georges Cathedral in Kingston, performed the piece with the choir last year. The one hour piece features a number of solo parts, which this year will include baritone Phillip Rogers and tenor Jared Buchmayer. The oratorio also offers up a number of cameo solo parts that will be sung by Ralph McInnes and George Turcotte.

The piece tells the story of the Passion, begining at the Garden of Gethsemane and ending at the cross when Jesus “gives up the ghost”. It is a very moving piece and Annabelle Twiddy, musical director of St. Paul's, Harrowsmith and Trinity United, Verona, who has been rehearsing with the choir for weeks, is thrilled to have five or six additional singers this year. Twiddy, who will also be singing in this performance, is equally thrilled to announce that the oratorio will be performed again on Easter Sunday, April 5 at the Bridge Street United Church in Belleville at 3pm. “We put over 200 man hours of practice every year into the piece so we are thrilled to be singing it twice this year," she said.

"The Crucifixion" was performed at St. Paul's in Sydenham in 2012 and again in 2014. For those who have yet to hear the piece, it is more than worth the trip to Sydenham. Music is one special way to unite and move people and that should definitely be the case at this special event. Guests are invited to make a donation to Southern Frontenac Community Services whose numerous programs support many families and individuals in the local community.