The Greenville Choral Union and Orchestra will celebrate their 82nd performance of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah on Sunday, December 2 at 4:00 p.m. in the Whitlock Music Center on the campus of Greenville College (Greenville, IL). In addition to this perennial favorite, the Choral Union and Orchestra will present a variety of other seasonal music with brass, percussion, strings, woodwind, and keyboard instruments. The 80-voice Choral Union and the 40-piece Orchestra includes members of south central Illinois communities in addition to students, staff, and faculty members from Greenville College. This year’s vocal soloists are members of the Choral Union and include: sopranos Marilyn Bouslog (Danville, IL), Kristen Markell (Greenville) and Jessica McCubbin (Buffalo, IL); altos Alyssa Gosselin (Derby, VT), Sarah Reese (Edwardsville, IL) and Stacey Ritter (Edwardsville); tenor Lloyd Nicks (Cahokia, IL); and basses John Derr (Edwardsville) and Dale Martin (Greenville). Twenty professional instrumentalists from the St. Louis area will join the Greenville Chamber Orchestra, directed by Ms. Charity Briles, Instructor of Violin at Greenville College. Ms. Sarah Todd, Piano Instructor at Greenville College, is the accompanist for the Choral Union. Former Greenville resident Carlo van Ulft, a professional carillonist (Centralia, IL), will serve as organist. Dr. Jeff Wilson, Director of Choral Activities at Greenville College and Music Director of the Greenville Choral Union, will conduct the concert. Seating for the concert will begin at 3:30 p.m. An offering will be taken to help defray the costs of the concert. For those who are not able to attend the performance, the concert will be broadcast live on WGRN, 89.5 FM. For more information about the Greenville Choral Union and Greenville Chamber Orchestra, please contact the Greenville College Department of Music at (618) 664-6560.
