Singing the 'Messiah' Other Holiday Delights, and Tanglewood

The Christmas music season is underway, and one of the early entries in the holiday calendar is the annual Williamstown Holiday Walk, and a concert at the Clark Institute featuring the storytelling, music and dance of Tomáseen Foley’s “A Celtic Christmas†on Friday, Dec. 4, at 8 pm. Tickets are $28 ($25 for members and children). Call 413-458-0524 or go to www.clarkart.edu.

   If you are in a participatory mood, consider joining Crescendo for a “Messiah†sing-in with conductors Jack Brown, Christine Gevert and Ben Harms  at the First Congregational Church, Great Barrington, MA, this Saturday, Nov. 28 at 7:30 p.m. Bring your own score or buy/rent one at the event. For reservations, 800-838-3006, $35.

   The Church of St. John in the Wilderness on Route 344 in Copake, NY, will present a chamber music concert with Sharon Powers, flute; Ellen Katz Willner, oboe; and Beth Craig, cello, on Sunday, Dec. 6, at 2 p.m. The program includes works by Haydn, W. F. Bach, Telemann, Schickele and Corigliano. Suggested donation, $10, children free. 518-329-3674. Two more concerts are scheduled to  take place, there, in coming months.

   Farther afield, the Boston Symphony has just announced this summer’s Tanglewood season, and anniversaries abound. The summer will officially open on July 2 with Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection†conducted by music director James Levine, with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and soloists Layla Claire and Stephanie Blythe.

   But events begin a week earlier, including a live broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion†with Garrison Keillor, a dance program by the Mark Morris Dance Group, and a tribute to Arthur Fiedler and John Williams that will kick off the 125th anniversary of the Boston Pops, now conducted by Keith Lockhart.

   The complete schedule is available at www.tanglewood.org.

   Tickets go on sale Valentine’s Day.

   Meanwhile, those hungry for the sound of the BSO can visit the www.bso.org to check the season.   

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