Celebrating a decade-long annual tradition, the choirs from Williamsburg Congregational Church and the First Churches of Northampton will join their voices for Sunday morning services on March 19 and March 26.
This year, the combined group of 34 members will be singing anthems focusing on hope and peace.
“We wanted to do something other than a mass or a requiem,” said Gretchen Burddick, the Williamsburg church’s music minister. “We also felt that because of the feeling in the country and in the world now, we needed some hope, peace and reassurance.”
Burddick and Dana Pasquale, First Churches’ music director, chose anthems by American composers with uplifting messages of universal peace and understanding during troubles times and conflict.
These will include pieces like “I Dream a World,” a Langston Hughes poem set to music by Andre Thomas, which will be dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. “I Choose Love,” by Mark A. Miller, will also be performed in honor of the members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where an armed white racist murdered nine people last year.
Instrumentalists will include Cindy Naughton on flute, Steven Williams on violin and Erin Tighe on cello.
Performances will take place at the First Churches on March 19 and at the Williamsburg church on March 26. Both will begin at 10 a.m.
Each church is handicapped-accessible and all are welcome. Refreshment will be served after each service.
Music will fill the Chesterfield Community Center on Sunday, March 26 at 2pm as High Definition and The Northamptones bring their musical stylings to town.
High Definition is a vocal ensemble from the Northampton Community Music Center. Part of their performance will include a set called “The Spirit of Women,” featuring three pieces by Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker — “So Many Angels,” “Walk That Valley” and “Never Sit Down” — as well as Sara Bareilles’ “Brave.”
The Northamptones, a Northampton High School a cappella ensemble led by choral director Beau Flahive, are known for their consistently first-rate and complex vocal arrangements and fun contagious energy.
These concerts are free and open to the public, and all ages are welcome.
This event is funded in part by a multigenerational grant from Highland Valley Elder Services to the Chesterfield and Westhampton Councils on Aging, Chesterfield Public Library, Coordinated Family and Community Engagement grantees of Westhampton and Chesterfield, Davenport Childcare and the New Hingham Parent-Teacher Organization.
On Sunday, March 26 at 2 p.m. at the Goshen Town Hall, the Goshen Historical Society will be hosting “Shays’ Rebellion: Reclaiming the Revolution,” a presentation by Tom Goldscheider.
Shays’ Rebellion was a violent insurrection in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of debt judgments and tax collections. Taking up arms from New Hampshire to South Carolina, the rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests and a poor economy threatened farmers with the loss of their farms.
Goldscheider notes that Shays’ Rebellion presents an uncomfortable chapter in our history. How do we account for an armed insurrection by 4,000 men against the state in the cradle of the American Revolution?
Doors will be open at 1:40 p.m. Refreshments will be served.
Contact Kristen at 268-7120 or goshenhistoricalsociety@gmail.com with any questions.
“Recent Works,” by Goshen resident Angel Sciotti Vincent, is on exhibit in the Neil Hammer Gallery at the Meekins Library in Williamsburg during the month of March in Williamsburg.
Sciotti Vincent’s work includes watercolor landscapes, digital photography and oil paintings.
“The inspiration for all of my work is derived from interaction with the natural world,” says Sciotti Vincent, who has been painting and drawing since childhood.
Now retired from a long career working in libraries, she says she is grateful to the many creative individuals, artists, dedicated teachers and young students who have provided influence and support for her artwork.
Sciotti Vincent is a graduate of Salve Regina University, University of Rhode Island and Smith College.
Ideas for the column on life in the Hilltowns can be sent to Fran Ryan at Fryan.gazette@gmail.com