BETHLEHEM — Central Moravian Church will present an Advent and Christmas Concert on Dec. 7 at 1:30 p.m. in a program featuring choral and instrumental music to welcome the holiday season.

“Central Moravian Church is happy to open its doors and invite the Lehigh Valley and visitors to Bethlehem to enjoy carols and fellowship as we prepare for the busy Christmas season,” says Rebecca Lepore, minister of music.

“We hope this gift to our community will help spread the message of God’s love through music and word,” she adds. “Our annual concert will be even more meaningful this year as we join together in a historic church recently listed with worldwide Moravian Church Settlements as a UNESCO World Heritage site.”

The concert is free, and doors will open at 1 p.m.

The concert will open with an organ prelude, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence/Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” arranged by Lepore, who will also perform “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” “Walking in the Air” and “Skater’s Waltz” on Central Moravian’s Möller Opus 8650, with its four manuals, 109 ranks and 3,057 pipes.

Central Moravian’s choir will sing “Morning Star in Darkest Night” by Georg Friedrich von Hellström (1825-1912), a Dutch-born Moravian composer, organist and violist who served the Moravian congregation in Christiansfeld, Denmark, also part of the Moravian Church Settlements listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The choir will also perform “Festival Nowell” by American composer Dan Forrest (b. 1978).

Mainstreet Brass, ensemble in residence at Central Moravian, will perform a set of hymns and carols for Advent and Christmas, and the audience will be invited to join in singing hymns of the season, including the final verse of “Jesus Call Thou Me,” sung on Christmas Eve in 1741, when Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf named this new community, Bethlehem.

The concert will conclude with an organ and brass arrangement of Samuel Scheidt’s (1587-1654) “In dulci jubilo.”

Central Moravian Church, founded in 1742, is Bethlehem’s first congregation and the oldest Moravian Church in North America. Coming from a variety of backgrounds and traditions, the congregation today joins together to experience God’s love in a caring, respectful and inclusive atmosphere. Central Moravian Church emphasizes Christian faith, hope and love.

With a rich, living musical tradition, Central Moravian Church presents a full schedule of concerts annually. Early American Moravians had close connections to their European roots and sought and performed contemporary music being composed in Europe. Haydn’s “The Creation” was performed for the first time in the United States in the sanctuary of Central Moravian Church in 1811, and the first complete performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor was presented at Central in 1900, thus giving Central Moravian Church status as a National Landmark of Music.

Visit https://www.centralmoravianchurch.org/season/advent-christmas/ for a complete listing of Advent and Christmas activities at Central Moravian Church.

Information provided to TVL by:
Bryan Hay