HAYWOOD CHORAL SOCIETY

Home for the Holidays

Haywood Choral Society, under the interim direction of Kyle Ritter, will be back this holiday season – the first time performing since the pandemic silenced so many singers in 2020. Kathy Geyer McNeil , the well-known and much-loved director of HCS since 2015, has stepped down from her director responsibilities, and  has asked Kyle Ritter, Music Director for All Souls Cathedral in Asheville to finish out the fall season. Kathy McNeil grew Haywood Community Chorus  to an over 100-member chorus during her tenure. This year’s group is much smaller, post COVID, but just as determined and joyful about bringing the best choral music to our area. Kathy’s dedication, humor, and direction will be missed this season.

This holiday season, Haywood Choral society will be performing  Dan Forrest’s  Requiem for the Living, which the highly acclaimed composer distinguishes from traditional requiems, composed originally as masses for the dead. What sets Requiem for the Living apart from other requiems, is that it  Forrest wrote  it with the  intention to ask for rest and mercy for the living, to be a comfort for our sometimes hectic and stressful lives. Dan Forrest is a local composer, living and working in Greenville South Carolina whose compositions include choral, instrumental, orchestral works. Requiem for the Living (2013) is his best-known work,  performed hundreds of times  worldwide.

In addition, the choral society will perform traditional and contemporary holiday pieces by composers including John Rutter and Bob Chilcott, as well as  a gospel rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus.

HCS is funded by the Lake Junaluska Assembly and supported by a grant obtained from the North Carolina Arts Council through the Haywood Arts Council; in addition, the chorus is supported by its “chorus angels.” Admission to this concert is free; donations are welcome. For more information, visit www.haywoodchoralsociety.org.

Unable  to gather, prepare, and perform for so many months has given this choral season a warm and wonderful feeling of being “ home for the holidays.”  Please join us in ushering in the 2022 holiday season in song on Sunday December 4^th, 7:00 PM at the Waynesville First United Methodist Church, 566 S. Haywood St. downtown Waynesville, NC.