Hudson Valley Chorale Winter Concert Sunday

The Hudson Valley Chorale has its annual winter concert scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 15 at 3 p.m. at The Dominican Convent, 175 Route 340, Sparkill, NY. "Music For a  Sunday Afternoon - From Verdi to Bernstein" will feature operas, operettas and Broadway hits.

The Hudson Valley Chorale is a 30 member group from Northern Bergen County and Lower Rockland County, whose mission is to promote call singing, President Susan O'Brien said. They play a wide variety of period music, from renaissance to modern Broadway.

Four Washington Township residents, including Jim Dugan, joined the Hudson Valley Chorale and will be singing at the concert Sunday.

"I’ve been a choir boy and with Good Council since 1976," Dugan said.

He heard about the Hudson Valley Chorale through Good Council, and was invited with a few other members to join five years ago when the group started. Good Council currently has no choir director, so the Hudson Valley Chorale was the perfect opportunity for Dugan.

"The level of singer is a little harder and higher than the church choir," he said. "It’s a little more challenging."

The Chorale practices every Monday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Dominican Convent. They present two concerts each year, the winter concert and a tribute to armed forces concert in the spring.

"Our winter concert is the Challenging concert, where we take a lot of the classical music and do the more difficult pieces," O'Brien said.

The group will open with several favorite opera choruses by Verdi and Donizetti, including the “Brindisi” from La Traviata, the “Anvil Chorus” from Il Trovatore, and the “Chorus of the Wedding Guests” from Lucia di Lammermoor. Selections from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado and H.M.S Pinafore will follow, and a medley from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and pieces from other collaborative efforts with Stephen Sondheim will complete the presentation.

The concert will be about an hour and a half, with 14 to 15 pieces. Soloists Christina Major and Jeremy Blossey will make appearances at the winter concert.

"We're playing some of the greatest hits of opera," New Director Jason Tramm said. "A lot of these are used in commercials so even the most non-opera aficionado will know these songs and tap their foot along with them."

The Dominican Convent can hold 250 people and O'Brien said they always seat a full house.

The event costs $15 per person. Light refreshments will be served following the concert.