Sunday, December 22, 2019 at 4:00pm.

 TENTH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF LESSONS AND CAROLS AT HISTORIC KINDERHOOK REFORMED CHURCH TO BE HELD ON DECEMBER 22nd

The tenth annual Celebration of Lessons and Carols in Kinderhook begins at 4:00 p.m., Sunday, December 22nd, at the Kinderhook Reformed Church, 21 Broad Street (US Route 9), Kinderhook, NY 12106.

This event has proven very popular throughout the region, drawing attendees from the Capital District, the Berkshires, and Dutchess and Greene Counties, in addition to Columbia County. Included are readings, congregational singing, and choral and organ music of the Christmas season. Last year’s Celebration of Lessons & Carols was very enthusiastically received, with over 350 attending.

Nine readers from throughout the larger community will be joined by a choir of thirty-five experienced singers under the musical direction of David Smith. Pastor Rudy Visser will preside.

Arrival by 3:45 p.m. is recommended, when the preludes to this year’s Celebration of Lessons & Carols will begin. Throughout the service all will be invited to sing traditional hymns and carols. To honor the 10th anniversary of the Celebration of Lessons and Carols, Music Director David Smith has set the text “Ring out, ye bells!” by the American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, which will be sung by all.

Choral offerings will include works from the 17th through the present century, by Lauridsen, Mendelssohn, Morley, Ord, Rutter, Smith and Vaughan Williams, among them the anthem “Cast off, all doubtful care,” composed in 2012 to honor the 300th anniversary of Kinderhook Reformed Church.

David Smith notes that the Celebration of Lessons & Carols is “open to all, regardless of faith or denomination. Although its format derives from that used at King’s College in Cambridge, England, it has been appropriately adapted for use in Kinderhook. This seems just the thing for a late afternoon in the Christmas season. I am especially delighted that so many fine singers from past years, including members of the Broad Street Chorale, will be returning once again. Many tell me that it is with this occasion that their holiday season begins.”

Pastor Rudolph Visser observes that “The Kinderhook Reformed Church has been serving the community for over three centuries. Now with boldness we are enjoying a fourth century in the life of this historic church. We pray that our annual Celebration of Lessons and Carols will once again be a blessing for all in the community and bring joy to many.”

The church is handicapped accessible and parking is available.

For further information please visit www.kinderhookreformedchurch.com or call 518-758-6401.

Sunday, February 16, 2020 at 3:00pm.

Mid-20th Century American Music

Location to be confirmed.

The strings of the Broad Street Orchestra, joined by English hornist Nathaniel Fossner, clarinetist Paul Green and harpist Kathryn Sloat will explore:

Mid-20th c. American music by Samuel Barber, Elliot Carter, Aaron Copland, Irving Fine, Walter Piston and others.

Included will be Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, Piston’s Fantasy for English Horn and Harp, and Fine’s Serious Song, Lament.

Says David Smith, “Many now neglected treasures created during this important period in American music are long overdue for our attention. I am confident that listeners will be both stimulated and moved.”

CITV concerts are made possible with public funds from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered in Columbia, Greene and Schoharie Counties by the Greene County Council on the Arts through the Community Arts Grants Fund. Generous funding has also been received from the Hudson River Bank and Trust Company Foundation, T. Backer Fund, Alexander and Marjorie Hover Foundation, Stewart’s Shops, and The Price Chopper Golub Foundation, as well as from many individual and business supporters. Kinderhook Reformed Church is especially acknowledged for its many in-kind donations.

Some Photos

CITV concerts are made possible with public funds from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered in Columbia, Greene and Schoharie Counties by the Greene County Council on the Arts through the Community Arts Grants Fund. Generous funding has also been received from the Hudson River Bank and Trust Company Foundation, T. Backer Fund, Alexander and Marjorie Hover Foundation, Stewart’s Shops, and The Price Chopper Golub Foundation, as well as from many individual and business supporters. Kinderhook Reformed Church is especially acknowledged for its many in-kind donations.