Peggy Howell wanted to do something different for Christmas this year.
Howell, director of St. John’s Episcopal Church’s choirs, covered baroque music last year, so she set out to find a new piece this holiday season.
The result is “A Feast for Christmas,” a selection of traditional sacred and secular holiday tunes set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Academy of Fine Arts’ Warehouse Theatre.
It will feature the American premiere of English composer Allan Bullard’s “A Feast for Christmas,” a cantata of eight movements.
“It’s not really a religious piece. It’s a piece that gives you the different moods of Christmas,” she says. “Most of them are a more secular approach to your typical English Christmas, and they’re all based on historic texts.”
The cantata also incorporates different types of music, including rock and swing. Movements include the lively “Christmas Pudding,” the calm “Christmas Eve,” the humorous “Christmas Crackers” and an interesting recipe for a “Christmas Turkey.”
“I love Alan Bullard’s (work),” says Howell, who found the title piece on the composer’s Web site. “He has a wonderful sense of melody, and he also has wonderful rhythmic sense. I’ve loved all of his pieces that I’ve done.”
Local children’s choir Cantate, which Howell directs, and a brass ensemble will be joining the St. John’s choir, and the performance will be narrated by Robert Marshall.
Food — “(what) we talk about in the first movement and the last movement,” Howell says — will be served during intermission.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $13 for children 12 and younger. For more information, call (434) 846-TIXX or visit www.AcademyFineArts
.com.
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