December 5, 2023

ADVENT CHOIR TAKES BLEAKNESS OUT OF PRISON LIFE BY SINGING ‘NOEL’

REVIEW Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — Behind bars Christmas and the holidays aren’t usually that big a deal at Beaver Creek.

So inmates at the federal prison will welcome the Advent Choir tomorrow night.

If it weren’t for an hour or more of hearing the 52 choristers it would be even bleaker, says a singer.

And that’s on the minimum security side; over on the medium security side she says they can’t even get in there because it would take longer to clear security than the concert would take to sing.

So it’ll be the minimum inmates who hear “We Sing Noel,” under the direction of Linda Ellsworth.

So what the captive audience inside the barbed wire will miss in a praiseworthy private performance is one of seven that the Muskoka-and-beyond group put on each year between Orillia and Burk’s Falls.

**Go tell it from six churches and a prison. That’s the Advent Choir this month as “We Sing Noel” made a mid-tour stop in Gravenhurst Sunday night.**

Sunday night they were in Gravenhurst at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, where twice as many listened from the pews as sang from altar risers.

It was more than a Christmas concert; it was a declaration of faith in the Christian season of Advent.

Though the faithful did get to sing along with “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “What Child is This?” and “Joy to the World.”

Opening with “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” the choir came in leading the church-wide singing.

The choir proceeded to sing “The Heart of Christmas,” “Sing Noel,” “How Far,” “Noel,” “I Held the King,” “Adore,” “This is God” and “His Name Shall Be.”

**A trio of the choir’s youngest performers, Norah Wigney, Maddison Richardson and Michelle Beaumont, sang “What Can I Give Him?”**

Interspersed was a Women’s Ensemble number by Rachel Kuehn, Marny Mowat, Lynn Smith, Elaine Greenfield and Sherry Watkinson. Sue Nicholson and Karen Procek played a four-hands piano duet on “In the Manger.”

A young trio comprised of Norah Wigney, Maddison Richardson and Michelle Beaumont sang “What Can I Give Him?”

Weaving his way in and out was narrator and “Seeker” Jamie Lanning, who knelt at the baby Jesus after finding him in a dramatic end to the concert.

**An audience of 100, the smallest so far, got to sing along on four numbers with the Advent Choir.**

The Advent Choir is 29 years old and gathers each fall to rehearse and perform. Members come from North Bay to Parry Sound.

Proceeds of Sunday’s concert went to the Gravenhurst Ministerial Association. Orillia’s free-will donations from this Dec. 15 at Emmanuel Baptist support a Pregnancy Resource Centre there. The four other concerts aid the Muskoka Chaplaincy Association, which provides ministerial services at the hospitals and prisons.

The choir’s final three performances after the prison are in Orillia Friday, Huntsville at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Sunday Dec. 10 and at their host church Pinegrove Baptist Sunday Dec. 17.