Southport Methodist Church, beautifully adorned with Christmas décor, had a crowd of near 50 to hear BRHS Chorus’ Winter Chorus Concert Thursday, Dec. 15. An ensemble of seven sopranos and three altos performed 10 songs curated and directed by Dr. Mary Miller, who also accompanied on piano.

Altos included Grace Campbell, Rose Campbell and Sarah Harris. When the conductor called for “divisi,” sopranos parsed into Rachel Barter, Suzie Edwards and Justine Marshall as soprano I and Skyla Carrier, Ivory Cody, Hannah Hills and Chloe Joneth as soprano II.

A breakout featured Carrier and Hills performing “Where Are You Christmas?” (Jennings, Horner, Carey). All other songs were performed by the full ensemble. Songs included “Festival Sanctus” (Leavitt), “And the Night Shall Be Filled with Music” (Longfellow/Gilpin), “How Can I Keep from Singing” (arranged by Ellingboe), “The Road Not Taken” (Frost/Klaus), “Shenandoah” (arranged by Printz), “Celtic Gloria” (Shaw), and Dr. Miller’s pronounced favorite, “Patapan” (Carol/arranged by Lojeski).

Laughter and tears made their way into Miller’s introduction of  “Dominick, the Donkey” (Allen, Saltzberg and Merrell/arranged by Gallina), about a beloved donkey that helps Santa deliver presents to children who live in rugged terrains reindeer cannot access in Italy. The tears came as Miller said that, to her, the song represents her seniors graduating and “disappearing off to college.” They had been asking to sing the song since freshman year, she explained.

Miller described reading poetry and books about holidays in Maine for inspiration in selecting songs for the program, leading to “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” (Longfellow/arranged by Huff) serving as the concert’s finale. Miller spoke of how the song was written in 1863 during the Civil War as a call for North-South unification on Christmas.

It was recently announced that Campbell, Edwards and Hills were named to the Maine All State Chorus.