Concert Singers present annual holiday shows tonight, Sunday

SWAMPSCOTT / LYNN – The Concert Singers present their 34th pair of holiday concerts tonight and Sunday.The first, more serious, half of each concert will present the melodious ?Mass in A Major’ by French composer Cesar Franck. This work contains the well-known tenor/harp solo “Panis Angelicus.” The chorus will be accompanied by professional Boston area soloists, and a chamber ensemble of eight instrumentalists, featuring harpist Judith Ross, formerly of Marblehead.The second half of each concert is “POPS style,” featuring arrangements of popular Christmas and Hanukkah selections and audience sing-along. This will include a 100th birthday tribute to British composer Benjamin Britten, Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring,” “O Holy Night” sung by Swampscott tenor Mark Nemeskal, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Christmas Carols.”The first performance is tonight at 8 p.m. at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, 101 Forest Ave., Swampscott. The second concert will be held Sunday at 2:30 p.m., at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, 571 Boston St., West Lynn. These concerts are free of charge and both venues are handicap-accessible.William C. Sano of Salem has been music director of the Concert Singers for 27 years. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, teaches for the Salem State Explorers LLI, is an active church choir organist and choirmaster, and is a former music supervisor in the Marblehead Public Schools.The accompanist of the Concert Singers is Margaret J. Dee, a charter member of the Concert Singers, former music teacher in Danvers Public Schools and currently organist of Our Lady Church in Lynnfield.The 50-plus chorus members hail from 17 cities and towns north of Boston, as well as two members from Pembroke and Plymouth on the South Shore, and two from New Hampshire. These concerts are funded in part by LynnArts, Inc. and the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation.For further information please call Margaret Oleson at 781-639-4558 or Bill Sano at 978-744-4787 or check our website www.concertsingersorgreaterlynn.org.