Pemi Choral Society Annual Holiday Concert Series scheduled for Dec. 5-8

GILFORD — The 115-voice Pemigewasset Choral Society shines a light upon this year’s holiday season with a program devoted to the theme Give Us Peace.

The annual three-concert series begins at Gilford Community Church on Thursday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m. Performances follow at Inter-Lakes Middle/High School in Meredith on Friday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. and at Silver Center for the Arts at Plymouth State University on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 3 p.m. All concerts feature open seating and admission is free, with an optional free-will donation at the door.

Pemi Chorus Music Director Will Gunn chose the uplifting theme of peace at a time when conflict continues to cause suffering in several parts of the world.

He said, “We recognize that our own freedoms and basic human needs are met while many people in the world struggle for survival. We want to give voice to those who cannot speak while reflecting poet Langston Hughes’s lyrics, ‘Give us a peace that dares us still uphold, throughout the peace our battle against wrong.’”

The peace theme is explicitly articulated in several concert selections, most notably in “Give Us Our Peace,” based upon the Langston Hughes poem, and “Dona Nobis Pacem,” the final movement of the great “Mass in B Minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Seasonal holiday pieces include “Carol of the Bells” and “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks.” The program also features a couple of audience sing-alongs.

For more information, visit pemichoral.org.