Photo by Amanda Renzulli The Indianapolis Symphonic Choir’s annual Festival of Carols performances are coming up in Indianapolis Dec. 20 through 23. A Midwest family tradition filled with a variety of holiday favorites, the choir will be joined by guest artists including the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, acclaimed Brazilian-American baritone soloist Bruno Sandes, Indiana’s own Emmy award-winning journalist Debby Knox, who will join us for a heartwarming rendition of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and a visit from Santa.
INDIANAPOLIS — Father and son duo and Columbus natives Luther and Brian Pierson have always had a passion for choir. Growing up, Brian participated in local children’s choirs, while Luther sang with his church and the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. Their passion for singing led to them joining the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, with Luther joining his son this year.
This Christmas, they will be performing together in the choir’s Festival of Carols. They are not the only Columbus natives in the show however, as for more than 20 years, fellow Columbus native Dr. Eric Stark has served as the artistic director for the choir.
A graduate of Columbus North High School, Stark graduated from Wabash College and attended Indiana University, where he studied and received a doctorate in choral conducting, according to indychoir.org. While a freshman at Wabash College, Stark said he remembers his music teacher mentioning the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir to him, suggesting he check them out.
“… and that was the first time I had ever heard the name of this group, but I just thought, ‘wow, a symphonic choir, that must really be something special,’” Stark said. “And I couldn’t wait to become acquainted with it, I had to wait several years before I first got to hear them, but once I did, boy, the hook was set very quickly.”
Stark said he has now served as the artistic director for the choir for 22 years, but he also serves with the faculty of Butler University as a professor of music and has now done work around both the country and the world in countries including Argentina, Japan and Uruguay. However, he said Indiana has felt like home almost all of his life, and he has brought his university performers and symphonic choir to perform in Columbus on multiple occasions.
“We’ve done some of our Christmas performances down there, it’s been a little while since we did that but we enjoyed that very much,” Stark said. “And because I have kept in contact with the music staff at what was the church where I grew up, they have from time to time invited me to bring my university choir down and perform concerts there as well, and that’s been very rewarding too.”
Organization and preparation for Festival of Carols begins each year in February and March with music selection, Stark said. This year’s Festival of Carols features performances from Brazilian-American baritone soloist Bruno Sandes as well as the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Emmy award-winning journalist Debby Knox will narrate a reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and Central Sound, directed by Milo Ellis and Kayla Smith, from Lawrence Central High School will also perform in the show, Stark said.
Audience members can expect to hear familiar songs, such as “Joy to the World,” in addition to some not always associated with Christmas. As Sandes has performed a lot of Broadway, Stark said he wanted to perform “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha.”
Choirs will also perform a Hanukkah carol as well as “The Incarnation” by Tyler Johnson, the winning piece from the Symphonic Choir’s Holiday Carol Commission Competition. As is tradition, the concert will close with a performance of “The Dream Isaiah Saw,” followed by Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” according to Stark.
“We like to make sure that everybody who attends these concerts, and there are thousands of people in the audiences because we do four performances, that everybody has a moment in the performance where they just really connect with something,” Stark said. ”And, of course, everyone has different backgrounds and different experiences and all that, so we feel like having a variety of things gives us the best hope of reaching each audience member who’s there.”
Rehearsals for Festival of Carols began in October, Luther said. On Tuesday nights, he makes the drive from Columbus to Butler University, while Brian makes the drive from Lawrence, to practice. Luther said rehearsals have been great, but it has been interesting to him because they perform in a mixed choir rather than in sections separated by vocal type, which he has not experienced before.
“… so every four people is a new group. We have a soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and the entire choir is mixed that way,” Luther said. “And it makes it much harder to sing, or it’s a much more challenging thing because you can’t rely on the other people that are in your section to carry you along… you have to be able to read the music and be confident enough to sing it yourself.”
While Brian has been in the choir for three years now, Luther said he joined because he decided to do something different this year and because he wanted to sing with his son. When he found out his dad was considering joining the choir, Brian said he was really happy as they haven’t had an opportunity like this to sing together before. Both he and his dad are software engineers, with Luther having since retired, but Brian said singing in a choir like the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir is where he feels the most capable of creating art.
“…. You get to be creative still, even though you’re singing music off a page within the confines of a choir. There’s still a lot of artistry and mastery to be done there and… that’s really the passion or the thing I love to do, so it’s getting a chance to sing like that,” Brian said. “So, I see myself always being in a choir if I can help it throughout the rest of my life.”
Brian said his favorite song is “The Christmas Song” because he loves performing vocal jazz, while Luther said his favorite song is “The Incarnation.” Stark said he couldn’t point to one song in particular to be his favorite, but if he had to pick a few favorites, he said it would be the concert’s closing songs because of how exciting they are to hear with all the singers and the full symphony performing.
“We are so excited about this year’s concert with our special guests Bruno Sandes and Debby Knox, and the great variety of music…,” Stark said.
Festival of Carols will be held at the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel on Dec. 20 at 8 p.m., Dec. 21 at 3 p.m. and Dec. 22 at 3 p.m. A Monday performance will be held on Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Schrott Center for the Performing Arts at Butler University’s campus. Sunday and Monday’s performances will offer ASL sign language interpretation. Tickets are available at indychoir.org.
