Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1433510
WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 14 UCW NOVEMBER -28, 2021 "Messiah" performance returns by HANNAH LEE e Cumberland Choral Arts be- gan in 1991 and are now celebrat- ing their 30th anniversary. Sandy Cage, the President of the Board of Directors for the CCA, says they are still the best-kept secret in Fayetteville. ey are a community group that welcomes anyone to join. ey don't do formal auditions, rather they do voice placements. ey hold several performances in a non-COVID year. One of their annual traditions is to perform the Messiah, a classical work by George Frideric Handel that is best known for its "Hal- lelujah" chorus. e CCA will be partnering up with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra for the sec- ond performance in a row to pres- ent the piece to the community, just in time for Christmas. "I think there are people in the community who look forward to this every year," Cage said. "ere are some who say that it's not Christmas yet until they come and hear the Messiah." e annual tradition started at Fort Bragg but grew and is now performed for the majority of the Fayetteville community. While COVID-19 did shut down CCA performances for close to two years, some positives did come out of it. e CCA continued to post vir- tual performances on their social media pages and one of their vid- eos went viral. "We are extremely excited be- cause last year when we couldn't do our normal concerts, we ended up doing virtual pieces, and our artistic director, Michael Martin, worked to put those together and one of them was noticed online and we received an invitation to sing at Carnegie Hall in May," Cage told Up & Coming Weekly. Cage explained that the compos- er of the piece is having a musical festival at Carnegie Hall, and be- cause the composer noticed their cover of the piece online, the CCA has been invited to participate. ere will be 32 performers going to New York to participate in May. "We never dreamed anything like that could ever happen, so that invitation was quite a shock but a wonderful one. We are really look- ing forward to it," Cage said. e future of the CCA is looking bright as more people attend and join the choral group. "We are looking forward to growth in our group, more people singing, more people attending our concerts and possibly sponsoring our own music festival," Cage said. She also tells Up & Coming Weekly that there are plans to pos- sibly hold a European tour in the next couple of years. e upcoming concert, Messiah, is free to attend and no reserva- tions are required. However, they are asking audience members to wear masks during the event. e concert will feature four soloists, one being a local school teacher - Leigh Montague. Montague is a Fayetteville native and attended Pine Forest High School. She graduated in 2008 and attended UNC Pembroke. She currently teaches at Cumberland County Schools and has done so for the past nine years. e community concert will take place at Cedar Falls Baptist Church. Doors will open at 2 p.m. and the concert will start at 3 p.m. on Dec. 5. EVENTS HANNAH LEE, Assistant Editor. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. OCTOBER 22 – DECEMBER 11, 2021 NATIONAL ARTS EDUCATION EXHIBITION Artists Who Teach 2021 ESSENTIAL ARTISTIC LEARNING, INNOVATIVE THINKING, AND CREATIVITY TAUGHT THROUGH CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTISTRY. THE ARTS CENTER 301 HAY STREET. FAYETTEVILLE, NC Members of the Cumberland Choral Arts pose for a group picture. (Photo courtesy of the Cumberland Choral Arts.)