Help Wanted for Holiday Cheer
BUMC Holiday Choir seeks new members to perform for patients
The BUMC Holiday Choir performs Deck the Halls at a 2005 concert.
Need a little Christmas before the big day comes? The Boston University Medical Center Holiday Choir is adding a few jingle bells to the season’s silent nights with three upcoming performances — December 10, 11, and 13, all at 1 p.m.
And for all those merry gentlemen — and women — who have already started humming along, the group’s first rehearsal is today, November 26, at 1 p.m. in the East Newton Chapel, 88 East Newton St. The choir is open to anyone who is a part of the BU and BMC community, says Joy Deligianides, the choir director. Founded in 1970 by Vernon Truell, former chief pathology assistant at the School of Medicine, now retired, the choir has been an important part of the holiday season ever since, holding three free concerts and then performing for patients around the hospital the following week.
“We try to go to all the floors and sing to the patients, some of whom don’t get visitors, so any type of entertainment is exciting for them,” says Deligianides, manager of Web and online services at the Medical Campus Office of Information Technology. “We usually get everyone to sing along, and we even take requests.”
Deligianides, a soprano whose favorite carols include “Joy to the World,” “Carol of the Bells,” and “Mary’s Little Boy Child,” first performed with the choir in 1999 after enjoying the holiday concerts for several years. “Every year I meant to join,” she says. “But in the spring of 1999 my grandmother passed away, and I thought about how short life is and how I can’t keep waiting for a better time to do things.”
For more information about the BUMC Holiday Choir, visit the University Calendar. This year’s performances are on Monday, December 10, in the Menino Pavilion, 840 Harrison Ave., Tuesday, December 11, in the J. Joseph Moakley Building lobby, 830 Harrison Ave., and Thursday, December 13, in the East Newton Pavilion lobby, 88 East Newton St., all at 1 p.m. The concerts are free and open to the public.
Kimberly Cornuelle can be reached at kcornuel@bu.edu.