Do you need a little holiday cheer, or would you like to send some goodwill to a friend or family member?
The Meistersingers Civic Chorus – a Hattiesburg-based singing group associated with the Hattiesburg Concert Association – can help.
The group has teamed up with the Manhattan Holiday Carolers – a New York group of professional singers and actors, including award-winning cabaret artists and Broadway veterans – to offer singing virtual cards during the Christmas season.
The e-mailed cards will be a fundraiser for the Meistersingers, and they can be bought at bit.ly/msecards.
Purchasers can choose between four distinct holiday medleys, including “Snow,” “Santa,” “Christmastime” and “Olde English.”
Each medley includes three songs, and the cards are $25 each. Cards must be purchased by Dec. 15, and they will be delivered before Christmas.
Each card will be personalized.
Mark Malone, president of the Meistersingers, said the virtual cards offer a great fundraising opportunity for the group while allowing several Manhattan Holiday Carolers singers – including Mick Bleyer, Maggie Day Roberts, Kristin Feeney and Austin Ku – an opportunity to exercise their craft.
“The Manhattan Holiday Carolers usually go in person to deliver singing Christmas cards,” he said. “They write their own arrangements of carols or popular songs for Christmas, but, because of COVID-19, they’ve been kind of shut down. In a nice gesture, just to be able to keep singing and providing holiday cheer, four members of their group are offering their services to the Meistersingers as a benefit to us.”
Malone said e-card purchases will help finance the Meistersingers and allow them to have future concert seasons.
In an average year, the group stays busy with a winter concert in February, performances during FestivalSouth and a fall concert in October.
The group originally planned a Christmas concert for this year, but it was canceled due to COVID-19 precautions, Malone said.
“We suspended plans for a concert, and now, we’ve decided to create a virtual chorus … and we’re still in the process of doing that,” he said. “We will prepare two numbers and offer them free of charge to the public as our Christmas gift to the area.”
Malone said the Meistersingers do not charge for their concerts, but they do incur operating expenses each year, which makes fundraising a necessity.
“The funds we raise go to pay for our maestro and our accompanist, along with our musicians who usually perform with us,” he said.
The Meistersingers were formed in 1996, and they – along with the multi-week FestivalSouth during the summer months – form the two main components of the concert association.
Along with their many local performances, the group has performed in New York City and in London, where, in 2019, members joined with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to perform “Te Deum,” a work by American composer Dan Forrest.
