Community invited to join students singing Handel’s ‘Messiah’

When Eden Prairie High School’s (EPHS) Chamber Choir performs movements from George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” at its winter concert on Tuesday, Dec. 5, the community is invited to attend — and participate.

Jill Boyd, EPHS’s choir director, said, “It is a tradition in our program to invite community members, parents, grandparents, alumni, and staff members to sing with us.”
  
The Chamber Choir consists of 39 students in grades 10 to 12, and Boyd said she expects there will also be around 25 guest singers. “In years past, it has been many more singers, but since the pandemic, we are still re-building,” she said.

Anyone interested in participating must sign up before Monday, Nov. 27, if they would like to sing. Online tutorials are available, and several rehearsals are being offered, including a mandatory dress rehearsal on Nov. 27.

This is the choir’s 15th performance of movements from the “Messiah,” having typically performed it every other year for the last 30 years. “My mentor and predecessor, Julie Kanthak, began this biennial tradition in 1994,” Boyd said.

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Boyd said that Handel’s masterpiece is an important part of music history and culture.

“It is a work of art that has stood the test of time,” she said. “It brings singers from different generations together. There is so much to be learned and experienced in this music, and that is why we want to keep exposing kids to this kind of literature.”

This year, the choir will perform two movements from Handel’s 1741 English-language oratorio: “And the Glory” and “The Hallelujah Chorus.”

The EPHS Concert Orchestra will accompany the choir at the concert, to be held at 7 p.m. on Dec. 5 in the EPHS Performing Arts Center (PAC).