Koinonia Christian Fellowship kicks off the Christmas season next weekend with their annual Christmas in Concert, a free evening of Christmas carols and contemporary tunes performed by talented singers and musicians.
Executive director Kathryn Hofer says the last outing was their best yet.
“Last year was incredible. There were over 3,000 people over our five shows. That was pretty exciting,” Hofer said.
Now in its seventh year, they’ll do four shows in Bloomingdale and one in Woodstock the following weekend. Everyone involved is volunteering their time.
“The cast and crew invest hundreds of hours. That’s not even a calculation. Our cast and crew, there are 103 people, and so I was not even going to try to count out how many hours, hundreds upon hundreds, probably thousands of hours that get invested into the show. So it’s great when you can have over 3,000 people come and experience it,” Hofer said.
As per usual, all the musical arrangements are new this year. They have 15 songs they’ll be performing, all but one of which includes singing. One will be an instrumental piece with piano, violin, and viola.
The church’s music director made the arrangement for the instrumental piece.
“There’s a really good mix this year of Christmas carols that people are going to know. We’ve got We Three Kings, The First Noel, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and then we’ve got the classic Christmas songs, like Deck the Rooftops, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Let it Snow,” Hofer said.
They’ll also be doing one of the a capella group, Pentatonix’s, vocal arrangements of a Christmas song.
The show is orchestra heavy, with either strings or brass playing in almost very single song. There’s also a choir only song.
Every year they listen to the applause for each song to try to determine which was the crowd’s favourite, but when they get back feedback cards asking people for their favourite song, they’re always surprised.
“The funny thing is we had a meeting a couple weeks ago and we were talking about one of the things we really enjoy every year is every show people have a favourite [song]. When we get our feedback cards, literally every song is listed. So that’s always fun,” Hofer said.
People come from all over Ontario to see the show. Some even drove from the United States last year to see someone they knew perform.
“In the end of October we had people calling asking when the show was. Those are the coolest things when it’s become part of somebody’s traditions,” Hofer said.
New this year, they’re offering reservations at the Saturday matinee for seniors’ groups of 10 or more (age 65+), so they don’t need to stand in line for tickets.
She says the main reason so many volunteers come back each year to help make the show a success is because they love Christmas.
“The second thing I would say is they love helping other people have a really amazing start to the Christmas season. We strategically do Christmas in Concert at the beginning of December to help people kick off their Christmas season right and get them in the Christmas spirit,” Hofer said.
She notes it’s important for the church to help those people who have a hard time at Christmas or are celebrating the holiday for the first time without a loved on.
“Christmas is really exciting and it’s wonderful, but it comes with a lot of pain in different areas of peoples’ lives. Our real hope and prayer through Christmas in Concert is regardless of what season people are in and what’s going in and what this Christmas looks like for them, we just want this show to bring a bit of hope and excitement for what the Christmas season can be.”
Contact info.christmasinconcert@gmail.com or 519-744-7447 for more information about reserving seniors group seats for the matinee performance.
The four performances at Koinonia Christian Fellowship in Bloomingdale are Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. The Woodstock performance is Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. The concert is free, but the doors open one hour before show time to allow people the time to find seats with family and friends. Seats are on a first-come, first-served basis.
