Diana Clark promises a program won’t lull you to sleep.
The artistic director of the Coastal Sound Music Academy (CSMA) said the upcoming Coquitlam show may feature soothing songs with a harp “but it’s going to be a very upbeat concert,” she said with a laugh. “There are going to be lots of things to shake you up.”
The award-winning choirs will sing at the Evergreen Cultural Centre on Dec. 13 with music from Gillian Skinner, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music in New York — a mom to a CSMA singer.
It’ll be the first time the choirs have been accompanied by a harpist. “I keep telling them, ‘I’ve waited my whole life to sing with a harp’ and they’re doing it so young.”
The choirs will present the world premier of Children’s Winter, a song composed by Dermot O’Reilly and recorded by The Barra MacNeils that was specially arranged for CSMA and a harp.
There’ll also be This Little Babe, a movement from A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten — perhaps the most famous Christmas composition for choir and harp — as well as the Manx Lullaby and a Catalonian carol from the 1500s called Riu Riu Chiu.
And, of course, there will be seasonal sing-alongs such as Joy to the World and O Come All Ye Faithful.
“It’s very inspiring and, with this time of year and what’s going on in the world today, I think it’s really important for people to create beauty together and feel uplifted, affect change and be caring for others,” Clark said.
• Tickets for Comfort and Joy on Dec. 13 at 3 and 7 p.m. are $20/$15/$10 by calling the Evergreen box office at 604-927-6555 or visiting evergreenculturalcentre.ca.
