Handel S Messiah

It's not quite a tradition, yet. But Savage music director Ray Miles hopes his presentation of Handel's "Messiah" -- a free concert to benefit the needy -- will become a fixture of the holiday season.The concert that Mr. Miles will conduct Tuesday in the Savage Mill's Great Room has attracted more than 80 singers for the choir, twice as many as the charity concert last year."The interest has definitely expanded," he said. "This year it's going to become a tradition."The 7:30 p.m. performance, projected to draw about $4,000 in donations from concert-goers, follows the charitable tradition established by composer George Frideric Handel with the first performance of the "Messiah" in 1741.

Nearly 200 voices will join together this week, as choral singers from Notre Dame Preparatory School, Bryn Mawr School, Calvert Hall College High School, Hereford High School, Loyola Blakefield and Roland Park Country School present a combined concert on Sunday, Dec. 16, at 3 p.m., in Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium. The students will perform George Fredrick Handel's "Messiah," complete with orchestra and professional soloists. Conducting the performance will be Peter Lander from Hereford High School.

The "Messiah" isn't coming to Savage -- at least not this year.Illness has forced music director Ray Miles to cancel this year's performance of Handel's "Messiah," a free benefit concert held the past two years at the Historic Savage Mill.Mr. Miles said he's too sick to prepare the performance himself, and few volunteers offered to help him with the program -- a one-night performance that drew 700 people last year."We're very sad that the 'Messiah' is not coming," said Ellie Butehorn, a spokeswoman for the Mill.

Sometimes something special just happens. It happened the other night at Columbia Pro Cantare's performance of Handel's Messiah. The music, the performers just seemed perfectly aligned with each other. Frances Motyca Dawson was on top of her chorus. They all had been there before, many times, but there was nothing tired or predictable in the performance. They just got better and better as the night continued. Ronald Mutchnick's orchestral ensemble was also amazing. I actually looked for the individual musicians - who was playing the violins, the trumpet?

This Sunday, Baltimore's Handel Choir opens its 63rd season with a concert in the "Music for a Great Space" series that does feature genuinely great music in an equally great space.The space is the historic Cathedral of the Assumption at Mulberry and Cathedral streets. Accompanied by the organ of the Basilica and a 16-piece brass and percussion ensemble, Handel Choir music director T. Herbert Dimmock and his 80 singers will divide themselves into groups positioned in the cathedral's balconies in order to create the glorious antiphonal effects necessary for the music of Gabrielli.

Handel's "Messiah" is the holiday music of choice in the English-speaking world. And in Baltimore, Edward Polochick's annual performances of "Messiah" with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall have become one of the music season's most respected and beloved events.Joined by soprano Karen Clift, mezzo-soprano Mary Nessinger, bass-baritone Mark Doss and tenor Stewart Neill, Polochick will conduct Handel's masterpiece.The concerts are tomorrow and Saturday at 7: 30 p.m. Tickets$18-$40, and further information are available by calling (410)

The "St. John Passion" of Johann Sebastian Bach is on my mind these days, not just because of the generally unsatisfactory account of it given recently by the Annapolis Chorale, but because of an extraordinary new recording just released to coincide with the Easter season. Bach's musical setting of the Gospel of John is captured in all its gritty, dramatic splendor by Japan's premier baroque specialist, Masaaki Suzuki, who presides over a remarkable "Johannespassion" on Scandinavia's BIS label.

This month J. Ernest Green and his Annapolis Chorale have been busy music makers - a midmonth pops concert at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, a Youth Chorus concert at St. Anne's Episcopal Church, caroling by chorale members in downtown Annapolis, several performances at retirement communities, and a benefit concert for Beans and Bread in Baltimore. And last weekend, the chorale was back at St. Anne's with two performances of Handel's Messiah - its complete form Saturday and an abbreviated version with Christmas carols Sunday.

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Columbia Pro Cantare performs selections from Parts II and III of Handel's "Messiah" at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Jim Rouse Theater, 5460 Trumpeter Road. A lecture precedes the concert at 6:30 p.m., and refreshments will be served at intermission. Advance tickets are $23, $20 for seniors and students, $25 and $22 at the door. Call 301-854-0107 or 410-799-9321 for more information.

Sunday, Dec. 2 Choral music Columbia Pro Cantare Chorus will sing the Christmas portion and selections from parts II and III of Handel's "Messiah" at 7:30 p.m. at the Jim Rouse Theatre, Wilde Lake High School, 5460 Trumpeter Road in Columbia. Tickets are $25, $22 for seniors and students. To order tickets and for more information, call 410-799-9321 or 301-854-0107 or go to procantare.org . Chamber music Sundays At Three presents the Chagall Trio Plus One at 3 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 6800 Oakland Mills Road in Columbia.

It wouldn't be the Christmas season without George Frideric Handel's "Messiah," and in Howard County that means a performance by Columbia Pro Cantare on Sunday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Jim Rouse Theater at Wilde Lake. "Handel's 'Messiah' arrives every December and has a worldwide and fabulously successful run," Columbia Pro Cantare music director Frances Motyca Dawson says about this 18th-century oratorio's widespread appeal. "It has a sense of theater and of great drama. Handel came out of opera, and when he turned to writing oratorios that sense of drama never left him. There is a very special quality to the music that continues to delight the ear, mind and heart.

Columbia Pro Cantare performs the Christmas portion of Handel's "Messiah" and selections from Parts II and III at 7:30 p.m. today at Jim Rouse Theatre, 5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia. A lecture by Eileen Soskin precedes the concert at 6:30 p.m. and a reception follows the performance. Soloists are Amy Van Roekel, MaryAnn McCormick, Charles Reid and Lester Lynch. Tickets are $25, $22 for seniors and students. Call 301-854-0107 or 410-799-9321 or go to procantare.org for more information.

A come-as-you-are chorus from choirs, choruses and the community opens the season of Advent by singing without rehearsal the Christmas portion of Handel's "Messiah" at 4 p.m. today at St. James Episcopal Church, 5757 Solomons Island Road in Lothian. A free will offering benefits the Salvation Army. For more information, call 410-224-2478.

Since 1982, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has presented Handel's Messiah note-complete each December (excepting one year when the musicians were on strike), and all of those performances have been conducted by Edward Polochick. His distinctive approach to the beloved oratorio, and his ability to generate vivid music-making, make this annual event a treasured holiday tradition. How long did it take you to develop your interpretation of Messiah? It has truly been an evolution. It wasn't possible to do everything I wanted with the soloists, chorus and orchestra we had at the beginning.

The Columbia Pro Cantare will hold auditions for all parts in its 32nd season of concerts. Among the works to be performed are Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, Handel's Messiah, Brahms' Requiem, and a Tribute to Paul Robeson, with baritone Lester Lynch and the chorus. Auditions will be held at a private home in Harper's Choice. Rehearsals, to be held from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays at Hammond High School, begin Sept. 2. www.howardcountymd.gov/oa/50+expo.htm.