On Sunday, December 23rd, and again on Sunday, December 30th, the St. Augustine’s Chorale staged its 18th annual Christmas concert entitled “The King is Here” at the St. Augustine’s Anglican Church in East End. As always, the immaculate renditions by the dedicated choir were met with rousing applause from the audience, indicative of their admiration and appreciation for each and every song.
The “King is Here” was directed by renowned music personality, Lennox Vanterpool. It is a praise & worship musical for Christmas, which was originally arranged and orchestrated by Cliff Duren. “The King is Here” is a brand-new contemporary Christmas Musical specially designed for choirs like St. Augustine’s which, under the coaching and discipline of Mr. Vanterpool, left no stone unturned to take on the challenge of doing justice to each one of its 11 tunes.
Music for the performances were provided by the St. Augustine’s Orchestra featuring Kimba Southwell on piano; Curtis Robinson on bass; Kevin Archibald on keyboards; Kasem Thompson on drums; and Gordon Hazell on guitar.
Complementing the performance of the Chorale, proper, was the St. Augustine’s Youth Chorale, with the accompaniment of Damarai Gumbs on the piano. They were directed by Amelia Vanterpool-Kubisch and Sandra Liddie-Gumbs. These youngsters also ministered with impeccable performance as they rendered five inspiring Christmas songs.
The Anguillian spoke with the Director, Mr. Vanterpool, following the first performance. He remarked: “It just gets better and better. And since it gets better every time, it indicates that this is God’s work. Indeed, we give Him all the praise. Though the message of the Christmas story is always a constant, we are always looking for great renditions that will match the times in which we live.
“When we look at societal ills and the many challenges with which we are faced, we sought diligently to find something that will appropriately minister to the hearts and minds of our people. So I would like to applaud Sis. Amelia for choosing this work, ‘The King is Here’. She has been quite instrumental in selecting much of our work over the past years, and together we applaud her for such great zeal and taste.”
One rendition that stood out was the song “Jesus, Holy Child of Bethlehem”. Its arrangement and melody, with such pronounced harmony, took on an exquisite tone of pure worship. When The Anguillian mentioned its virtues to the Director, he stated that it was for that reason that they had chosen that rendition as their processional song — acapella fashion.
The Director also made sure to mention that, as a ministry group, they are indeed extremely grateful for the support from the public in general. However, he emphasized that they were particularly appreciative of the large turnout for the December 30th performance when the venue was filled to capacity.
