LEWISTON — The Maine Music Society’s 60-voice Androscoggin Chorale and the Edward Little High School Chamber Choir will present plenty of old favorites as well as some new additions to their “A Heritage Christmas” concert.

Performances will be at the Franco-American Heritage Center on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 11-12, and at the First Congregational Church in South Paris on Sunday, Dec. 19.

“I’m really excited about this year’s concert,” said John Corrie, artistic director of the Maine Music Society. The concert’s closing singalong of Christmas carols with the audience “always adds to everyone’s seasonal joy,” he noted.

The program opens with the two choruses assembled on opposite sides of the stage for “Hodie Christus Natus Est (Today Christ Is Born).” This is a short piece in the monophonic tradition of Gregorian chant which features voices sounding in turn from one side to the other.

“This is a wonderful double chorus piece,” Corrie said. There will be close to 100 voices in the combined choruses.

The Androscoggin Chorale’s program includes Kevin Seigfried’s “I Sing of a Maiden” and “Be We Merry,” arranged by Steven Sametz, as well as “Carol of the Bells” and “Ding Dong Merrily on High.”

Some of the contemporary holiday tunes include “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas” and a new arrangement of the children’s song “Up on the Rooftop,” with updated lyrics.

Corrie said the women of the Androscoggin Chorale will step forward to perform “Santa Baby,” popularized by Eartha Kitt several decades ago.

Following the Androscoggin Chorale’s presentations, the Edward Little High School Chamber Choir returns for its program of Christmas music, under the direction of school music director Beth Labrie. The collaboration with the Auburn school’s music program is part of the Maine Music Society’s music-education outreach program.

Another feature of the concert is a duet of Cesar Franck’s “Panis Angelicus,” by Corrie and Labrie.

The “A Heritage Christmas” concerts in Lewiston will take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12. At those presentations, the Maine Music Society will hold its silent auction. Proceeds will help underwrite the cost of concerts performed by the Androscoggin Chorale and the chamber orchestra.

Selected pieces of artwork, crafts, trips and other items in the silent auction may be viewed in advance at www.mainemusicsociety.org.

All items will be shown and bids taken one hour before, during intermission and a half-hour after each concert on the first weekend of performances only. Those bidding Saturday night may return to the Franco center on Sunday after the concert to complete their bid.

“A Heritage Christmas” will be repeated at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19, at the First Congregational Church in South Paris.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $9 for students; children 12 and younger admitted free. Call L/A Arts at 782-7228 or visit www.mainemusicsociety.org.

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