<\/p>\n
As it enters its 21st year, the Mancos Valley Chorus is preparing for its winter concert schedule, which will bring the group through the Montezuma-Cortez High School, Mancos United Methodist Church and Mancos Senior Center.<\/p>\n
The chorus will be performing Christmas and holiday favorites such as \u201cO Holy Night,\u201d \u201cLet it Snow\u201d and \u201cWinter Wonderland.\u201d The lineup also includes newer, lesser-known songs to provide variety.<\/p>\n
The Mancos chorus performs about five concerts each spring and winter. All performances are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n
Sarah Hatch is the president of the chorus this year, and she is the only member to have sung with the chorus since it got its start in 1998. She calls the group a \u201cmusical family.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says that weekly practices can have a therapeutic effect on members and are a time to heal from everyday stresses and problems at work and at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat two hours a week is a time when you can come and you forget all of that,\u201d Hatch told The Journal in a phone interview Tuesday. \u201cThis is your escape. This is where you come, and all you \u2026 think about is music. That\u2019s very helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
New members are invited to join the group each season without the need for auditions, as long as the group has no more than 36 singers at a time, the maximum that will fit in the group\u2019s performance and rehearsal facility at the Mancos United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n
Members pay dues to join the group, although the cost can be covered \u201cfor anyone for whom the $20 fee would be a hardship,\u201d according to the group\u2019s website. The chorus also raises money to pay their director, accompanyists and page-turners through donations, fundraisers and grants.<\/p>\n
The chorus will be joined in concert this year by pianist Lee Bartley and oboist Karen Harbaugh. The group\u2019s director is Kriss Larsen.<\/p>\n
As it does every year, the group began practices at the church in early September, packing the stage this year with 34 singers.<\/p>\n
This year, in addition to its six public performances, the group will perform for the Mancos Senior Center and host Mancos Elementary students at the Mancos Opera House for a full-school event.<\/p>\n
Hatch said the group has worked with the students in previous years, as well. The chorus hosts students at the end of the day for a singalong, giving the children an opportunity to learn a short lesson in chorus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just love it,\u201d Hatch said.<\/p>\n
The Mancos Valley Chorus will perform at the following locations and times this holiday season:<\/p>\n
Montezuma-Cortez High School: Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.<\/em>Mancos United Methodist Church: Dec. 2 at 3:30 p.m.; Dec. 7 at 7 p.m.; Dec. 8 at 3:30 p.m.<\/em>Mancos Senior Center, for patients and their families only, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" also perform for Mancos students<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97133"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}