(Spencer)– The Messiah is coming back to Spencer for the upcoming holiday season. Tom Rutt of the Spencer Messiah Board says they’re putting out a call for singers…
“This is actually put on by the Spencer Messiah Board. We’re a group of people in the churches in the Spencer area and this actually has been going on since about 1930. From about 1930 until 1969 they did the Messiah every year with piano and then about that time they moved over to the new Methodist church and then we got an orchestra about 1977 I think it was, 1980, and so when you have this big orchestra we’re going to be having on December 7th we need somebody to sing with our orchestra and so that’s what we’re looking for today. We’re looking for all voice ranges, high school up to whatever. We start rehearsals on October 19th at 6:00 pm at Sacred Heart Catholic in Spencer.”
Rutt says singers from throughout the area are invited to join…
“If people have a score of The Messiah they should bring it with them and bring a pencil. If they don’t, no problem. We’ll have scores there at the rehearsal and if you can’t make it the 19th, we’ll be doing rehearsing every Sunday after that until the 23rd of November. So no problem if you can’t make it. We have family things come up on the weekends, you know, so just come to as many rehearsals as you can and we’ll get you ready.”
He adds it’s been a couple of years since the Messiah was last performed in Spencer…
“We do it every three years. The other two years we do what’s called a Festival of Lessons and Carols, so. We’ve done that the last couple of years and now it’s a Messiah year for us.”
The performance will be directed by Timothy Schumacher, a well known local musician who also directed Festival of Lessons and Carols in 2023.
