JOPLIN, MO (SNS) – The halls of Taylor Performing Arts Center once again will be filled with the sounds of Handel’s most beloved oratorio, Messiah, during the holiday season.

Thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous music lover and friend of Missouri Southern, this exciting production will be performed at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec, 13 in Taylor Performing Arts Center on the MSSU campus.

A chorus of approximately 200 voices will take part in the annual event.

Messiah director, Bud Clark, Head of the Music Department and Director of Choral Studies at Southern, is excited about the project.

“We will have an outstanding orchestra of around 45 performers from the Joplin and surrounding area accompanying a Joplin community chorus that will include the Missouri Southern Concert Chorale,” says Clark.

“It is a powerful, moving work, that is as delightful to perform as it is to listen to,” Clark adds. “I have had many community singers tell me that unless we sing Handel’s Messiah, the Christmas season isn’t complete for them.”

Soloists this year will include professional artists from Oklahoma.

KGCS-TV will broadcast a recording of this year’s presentation at MSSU of Handel’s Messiah. The first airing will be at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 18. Additional presentations will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, at 4 p.m.and 9 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 24, and at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m, Sunday, Dec. 25.

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