Every Voice Welcome: Sing Handel's Messiah in Weaverville This December

From freshman tenor to the podium

Chuck’s own connection runs deep. Mrs. Clark was his childhood piano and voice teacher, and he first sang Messiah under her direction in 1982, as a ninth grader at North Buncombe High School.

“I was literally short, standing in a room full of seasoned adult singers and thinking, WOW,” Chuck remembers. “Mrs. Clark tolerated my complete lack of practice with such grace and love.”

That same year, Mrs. Clark fractured her arm on the day of the performance and conducted that evening in a cast. About twenty years later, Chuck broke his own right arm the night before conducting an Asheville Lyric Opera dress rehearsal. “I figured Mrs. Clark had done it before,” he says, “so I could do it now.” After leading the Weaverville Messiah in 2022 and 2024, he returns to the podium this December.

Why sing it, even if you never have

Messiah’s choruses are some of the most rewarding music a choir can sing: big, joyful, and written for many voices. Some of us sang them in school or church choirs decades ago, and this is a chance to sing them again. If it’s your first time, you’ll be surrounded by experienced singers, and the music and vocal part recordings are provided so you can practice at home.

Handel himself makes a fine role model. He was 56 when he composed Messiah in about three weeks in 1741, and at 74 his last public appearance was at a performance of Messiah, just eight days before he died.

As we explored in The Science of Singing, choral singing supports memory, mood, and connection.

Messiah may be the most joyful workout we know.

What we’ll sing, and who we’ll sing with

The chorus will sing eight of Messiah’s best-loved choruses:

• And the Glory of the Lord
• Thou That Tellest Good Tidings
• For Unto Us a Child Is Born
• Glory to God in the Highest
• Let Us Break Their Bonds
• Lift Up Your Heads
• His Yoke Is Easy
• Hallelujah Chorus

We’ll be joined by four of the region’s finest professional soloists: soprano Amanda Horton, alto Rachel Hansbury, tenor Casey Edwards, and bass Jonathan Ross. ASC singers will see a familiar face at the organ, our own assistant director & accompanist, Eric Fricke.

“When we release the last chord of the Hallelujah Chorus and the audience erupts,” Chuck says, “joy on the singers’ faces makes everything, EVERYTHING, worth it”