Phoenix Choir is developing a reputation for adding a special touch to their performances. For the 2015 festive season their Christmas concerts in Leura and Lithgow continued this tradition with the return of audience-favourite guest baritone soloist, Tristan Entwistle and trumpet soloist, Emma Bolton.

Musical Director, Rowen Fox, built a program around the exquisite Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols. This popular work is a medley of English folk carols which Vaughan Williams collected from country communities, rescuing them before they died away. The melodies of each carol weave back and forth in a conversation between the Baritone soloist and choir, from his opening solo, reminiscent of a wintry English landscape, to the full-throated climax with the choir wishing you all a Happy New Year,

Trumpeter, Emma Bolton joined the choir in a performance which began with the rousing Christians, be Joyful, from J S Bach’s famous Christmas Oratorio. Emma also added magic to a selection of much-loved traditional carols, which are interspersed through the program, and the audience are invited to sing along with the most popular numbers.

Tim Kaye added the power of the organ with a dramatic opening of Bach’s Chorale Prelude In Dulci Jubilo (BWV 729) and the Wilcox arrangement of the audience carols.

No Phoenix Choir Christmas concert would be complete without selections from Handel’s Messiah. Tristan and Emma joined to perform the stirring and virtuosic The Trumpet Shall Sound and the Halleluiah Chorus provided a rousing finale.

St Alban’s Anglican Church LEURA
Hoskins Memorial Uniting Church Lithgow