The Con Brio Choral Society will present their Christmas Concert Friday evening and Sunday afternoon at Christ the King R.C. Church in Old Lyme, CT. Photo by Peter Coffey.

OLD LYME — Sound the trumpets and sing praises!

The Con Brio Choral Society will ring in the Christmas season with two sparkling concerts featuring Zelenka’s Dixit Dominus, Rutter’s Gloria, motets and other works. The concerts will include professional soloists and the Con Brio Festival Orchestra and Brass Ensemble performing under the baton of Dr. Stephen Bruce at Christ the King Church in Old Lyme, CT, 1 McCurdy Lane, on Friday, Dec. 6 at 7 pm and on Sunday Dec. 8 at 3 p.m.

As in past Con Brio concerts, pieces written for multiple choruses will be sung ‘in the round’, taking advantage of the magnificent Christ the King sanctuary. This year, the pieces chosen are In Dulci Jubilo by Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) and Gloria from Mass for 16 Voices by Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (1736-1800).

Four soloists – Soprano Danielle Munsell Howard, Alto Allison Messier, Tenor Terrence Fay, and Bass Christopher Grundy – will perform with Con Brio and the Con Brio Festival Orchestra. The audience will also be invited to sing two Christmas carols, joining Con Brio’s singers, soloists and orchestra.

Tickets for the Friday evening concert are $30 and for the Sunday afternoon performance, $35. For more information about Con Brio and to buy concert tickets, go to www.conbrio.org or call 860-526-5399.

Con Brio’s 68 singers, selected by audition, come from 16 Connecticut towns stretching from Deep River and East Haddam in the north to Essex and Old Saybrook in the south, west to Clinton, Guilford and Madison, and east to Old Lyme, Niantic and Groton. The group rehearses weekly in Old Saybrook at St. Paul Lutheran Church.

The Soloists

Soprano Danielle Munsell Howard of Guilford has been praised by Opera News Online for her “bright, pretty timbre and remarkable facility.” She has performed as soloist with the American Bach Soloists, Amherst Early Music Festival, Boulder Bach Festival, the Yale Collegium Soloists, Princeton Pro Musica, and a number of contemporary choral and chamber ensembles. Her New York debut singing Melagro in Gluck’s La Corona at Merkin Hall was enthusiastically received, critically acclaimed in The New York Times and recorded live for Albany Records.

Alto Allison Messier has performed as an oratorio soloist in numerous major works including the Mozart Requiem with the Clearlakes Chorale in the New Hampshire Lakes region, the Rachmaninov Vespers with the Boston Russian Choir; and Dvorak’s Mass in D and Mass in Time of War with the Bermuda Chamber Choir. Her opera credits include Dido in Dido and Aeneas and La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica with Piccola Opera NH.

Tenor Terrence Fay, lauded as a “musical polymath” by the New London Day, is enjoying a burgeoning career as a tenor soloist and an active choral artist while also serving as principal trombonist of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theater of Connecticut, and assistant principal trombonist of the New Haven Symphony. As tenor soloist, he has performed with the Eastern Connecticut and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, the Greater Middletown Chorale and Con Brio.

Baritone Christopher Grundy has performed as a soloist throughout North America and Europe in opera, oratorio, and recital. In praise of his performances, reviewers have written that in the title role of Don Giovanni, he “made an impact in the part, vocally and dramatically.” As the baritone soloist in the Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, he “brought eloquence and musicality to the performance.” He has also performed as soloist with Fairfield County Chorale, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Orchestra New England and the Con Brio Choral Society.

The Program

The Con Brio singers will open the program by processing into the church accompanied by a brass fanfare written by Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745).

From the risers, the chorus, soloists and orchestra will open with Zelenka’s Dixit Dominus followed by John Rutter’s Gloria.
Opening the second half, the singers, arranged all around the outside of the sanctuary, will sing two pieces written for multiple choruses: In Dulci Jubilo by Samual Scheidt and the Gloria from Mass for 16 Voices by Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch.
Then the chorus will return to the risers to sing a varied selection of Christmas, winter, and Hanukkah pieces. As in the past, the audience will be asked to join in singing two much-loved Christmas carols.