Community Combined Choir Is Looking for Singers

Singers from houses of worship in and around Greenbelt met in the last Thursday evening for the first of eight practices for the three holiday concerts this group has done every year since 1972.

Only 10 singers showed up for the first practice, so director Jean Cook asked all participants to contact their friends and get more singers involved. This is a good year for new members to join as we are doing some special numbers that we haven't done for the past few years. 

As popular as "The Twelve Days After Christmas" has been for the past three years, we would like to give it a rest and do something else that's both funny and Christmas-y. I am planning a 2011 rewrite of "White Christmas," and other interesting items may appear.

The Christmas program will be held Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m. and lasts an hour, with a spaghetti dinner preceding it at 6 p.m. The program includes special groups and soloists as well as the Community Combined Choir. Members of different choirs wear the robes of their choir and show the diversity of Greenbelt choirs. Those without a robe can borrow one from the Greenbelt Community Church. 

For those who don't celebrate Christmas, there is an interfaith Thanksgiving service where two nondenominational hymns are sung by the combined choir. We also give a special concert to residents the week before the concert, on Dec. 8.

It is a wonderful thing to come together for a practice and sing Christmas music in October. And everyone that joins gets a free spaghetti dinner after the concert and cookies at Green Ridge House when its concert is held. Worthwhile rewards for singing some pleasant carols.