The Aug. 8 blog post on the Ozarks Chorale’s website says it all: “We’re back! The clouds are rolling back, and soon we will be singing together again.”
That post announced the end of the two-plus year hiatus of the popular choir due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The revamped group returned to rehearsals in September and will finally hit the stage at the Eureka Springs Auditorium again at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11 with a holiday concert titled “Sounds of the Season.”
“We have some very dramatic, exciting music as well as some beautiful melodic melodies,” said Ann Reed, president of the board of the Ozarks Chorale, who has been with the group for the past 12 years. “We have something for everybody that they will love and appreciate.
“It will be the perfect thing to get you in the Christmas and holiday spirit. We work very hard, and I think we will share an outstanding performance and I think the audience will love it and be excited that we are back for the holiday season.”
It will be the first performance for the Ozarks Chorale since the group had to halt rehearsals in March 2020 when the pandemic started to spread in the area.
“Spring of 2020, we had started our season and then COVID took off and for the safety of everyone, we decided not to continue rehearsing,” Reed said. “And we just started back in September 2022. It’s been almost three years since we’ve had a concert, so we are very excited about our concert coming up.”
Reed said the chorale, which started in 1994, will have familiar faces and new faces when it hits the stage. One new face will be the group’s director, Jess Wade, who retired in 2013 after 25 years as an assistant coordinator of choral activities at Texas A&M, where he conducted the 80-voice mixed choir and 60-voice women’s chorus.
For 25 years, Wade, who is from Springfield and now lives in Holiday Island, was also the artistic director and conductor of the Brazos Valley Chorale in Texas.
“We are very fortunate to have his expertise and his leadership skills in this area,” Reed said.
Tickets for “Sounds of the Season” are $10 cash and can be purchased from any Ozarks Chorale member or at the door the night of the concert. Tickets can also be purchased in advance at https://square. link/u/wz8ZFZpR. Children and students are free.
“We’ve been sharing quality music with the community for all this time,” Reed said. “It’s definitely a community choir.”
Who is definitely happy to be back together again.
“We are excited to be back doing what we love to do, singing together and creating music together,” she said.
