GREEN RIVER — The annual Handel’s “Messiah” Interfaith Community Choir will once again be bringing joy and goodness to the community this Christmastime.
Originally founded in Sweetwater County in 2011 by Bonnie Arnold and Nancy Stevens, the annual performance has been a way to bring community members together regardless of faith.
“It’s truly an interfaith and non-faith experience for those who love music, and love to hear harmony and instruments,” Arnold said.
And while the musical aspect and Christmas joy the performance brings is a crucial part of the evening, Arnold said that most important of all is the food drive that accompanies the choir performance.
George Frideric Handel performed the very first “Messiah” choir performance in 1742 in Dublin, Ireland, with the purpose of gathering food for the poor, Arnold said.
“That was Handel’s whole reason for doing this magnificent piece on Christmas. It was to give hope, and you can’t give hope to someone who’s hungry,” she said. “So, we are also collecting food for the food bank.”
Those who come to watch the choir perform are encouraged to bring canned foods and non-perishable food items that will be donated to the Food Bank of Sweetwater County Monday morning. Arnold said there will be tables set up in the foyer of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Stake Center for the donated food, so attendees can drop off their donations as they come in for the performance.
“This has become a beautiful tradition,” Arnold said.
While the tradition of hosting a “Messiah” choir performance has persisted since 2011, they did have to press pause for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. This year would have been their 13th annual performance had they not had to take a break. Arnold said the community has had Handle’s “Messiah” performances before but it always took around four months to prepare, which is a time commitment many aren’t able to make.
“Normal people don’t have time to practice that much,” she said.
In 2011, Arnold found some user-friendly music and she, along with Stevens, got together with some of her musical friends to start organizing the performance the community has enjoyed for 11 years.
“There is so much culture in this county,” Arnold said. “My musical friends and I thought of people in our community, Green River and Rock Springs, who are of different faiths and non-faith, and we decided to try this condensed version of Handel’s ‘Messiah’. And it was amazing.”
The choir is complete with 45 singers this year, and includes a performance of “Hallelujah Chorus”, a narrator, and a small orchestra consisting of flutes, a cello, harp, violin, and an oboe, as well as a piano and organ.
“In addition to singing Handel’s “Messiah” pieces, Nancy Stevens, my co-director and co-producer, and I also each have a more contemporary choir piece that we teach the choir,” Arnold said. “Oh my goodness, they are gorgeous. There’s such amazing talent here.”
Arnold also directs a Christmas carol sing-a-long with the audience participating. With her being a Green River native, she knows many of the audience members and she said it creates a fun and exciting experience.
“It’s such a thrill,” she said.
Many years back, Arnold had read in a stranger’s obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune that this woman had started a Christmas carol sing-a-long in her community, and Arnold loved the idea and thought Green River should do that. Now, Arnold has brought this idea to the community and expanded it to be the interfaith choir that exists today.
“It just doesn’t feel like Christmas without attending a Christmas choir performance,” Arnold said. “Me and my choir friends, we need to be in a Christmas choir.”
The performance will be this Sunday, Dec. 15, at 7 p.m. at the LDS Stake Center in Green River, located at 120 Shoshone Ave. All community members regardless of faith are invited to attend, get into the Christmas spirit, and bring a donation for the food bank to give back to their fellow community members.
