Picturesque Marblehead offers the perfect backdrop at holiday time for the popular Festival Chorus concerts. The entire town is transformed into an enchanted village, with shop owners offering hot cider and cheer, plenty of holiday music to delight shoppers, and, the not-to-be-missed Festival Chorus concerts. A wonderful tradition—which started thirty-one years ago at Old North Church, initially c
onceived as a gift to the Marblehead community—the Old North Festival Chorus has grown to a record-breaking 100 members and will be complemented by a carefully-selected chamber orchestra of professionals from Boston and surrounding areas, and noted soloists from the region. The Festival Chorus gathers Old North’s Senior Choir together with enthusiastic singers—amateur to professional—from many neighboring communities and churches in Marblehead. Each season, the Festival Chorus welcomes new voices while maintaining a devoted ensemble from previous years. Encouraged by a love for music and a reputation as one of the North Shore’s most spirited and talented volunteer choirs, the Festival Chorus & Orchestra has been lauded for its outstanding performances of major choral works each year. Director Maria van Kalken holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Oberlin and New England Conservatories of Music—primarily under the tutelage of Yuko Hayashi and Donald Teeters—and has amassed an education abroad in Amsterdam (Holland) and Pistoia (Italy).
