Submitted by Mark D. Freeman
On Sunday, Dec. 11, Blue Ridge Vocal Connection, the New River Valley’s fastest-growing and farthest-traveling community chorus, continues a festive parade of holiday concerts with a stroll through Hotel Roanoke’s “Fashions for Evergreens” Christmas tree display.
The group will sing in the North Entry Foyer near Roanoke Ballroom (D) between 5 and 7 p.m.
The program, called”Christmas in the Air…Waves,” features familiar, toe-tapping hits such as a Pentatonic-styled “Up on the Housetop,””My Grown Up Christmas List,” and “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
The chorus will meander among the merry boughs, serenading with holiday favorites such as “Silent Night,” “The First Noel,” “Silver Bells,” and “The Holly and the Ivy” along with a fresh, original version of upbeat gospel great, “Children, Go Where I Send Thee.”
Director Thomas L. DeBusk founded Blue Ridge Vocal Connection in the summer of 2021 as a way to bring people together. The chorus has grown significantly in just a few months, now numbering more than 30 singers. DeBusk routinely combines people who “just like to sing” with original musical arrangements to create truly entertaining musical programs.
Blue Ridge Vocal Connection is a community-based organization purpose-driven to build community through engagement.
While this is only the chorus’s second Christmas season, they’ve already performed concerts at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg and Primland Resort in Meadows of Dan.
Upcoming concerts, in addition to the Dec. 11 concert at the Hotel Roanoke, include Saturday, Dec. 17, at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Christiansburg; Sunday, Dec. 18, at New Dublin Presbyterian Church in Dublin; and Tuesday, Dec. 20, at the Karr Center at Warm Hearth Village in Blacksburg;