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A season of preparation

As summer drags on, churches and choirs are hard at work lining up Christmas programs.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published August 26, 2007

The calendar might say August, but those in charge of church music are thinking December.

As temperatures soared Wednesday, inside Christ United Methodist Church's large sanctuary in downtown St. Petersburg, director of music Janice Buchanan and organist Barry Stevens rehearsed an organ-piano duet for the annual Christmas concert.

At the Island Chapel on Tierra Verde, members of a special choir assembled from Pinellas and Hillsborough counties have been picking up music books and tapes for their Christmas program since the first day of August.

And at Park Place Wesleyan in Pinellas Park, known for its yearly Living Christmas Tree production, assistant pastor and director of music Paul Priore is getting ready to juggle rehearsals for fall and Christmas performances.

It's hard to think Joy to World or Silent Night in the middle of summer, said Bill Findeison, who has been assembling a communitywide Christmas choir at the Island Chapel for the past five years.

"The whole thing about a music director's life is that 90 percent of it is preparation. I start on Jan. 1," he said.

This weekend almost 300 choir directors and other church musicians are expected at Bayshore Baptist Church in Tampa for a sacred choral workshop. Christmas music was expected to be among the selections introduced during the Saturday program.

Tom Kurt, music director at St. Jerome's Catholic Church in Largo, planned to attend the session. This year, he said, he will begin Christmas rehearsals after Labor Day. He's beginning a little later this year, because he and one of St. Jerome's choirs just returned from a two-week trip to Europe, where they won the Cracovia Cantat, or Krakow International Choir Festival. Kurt said he and assistant music director Erica DiCeglie balance their Christmas music with classical and contemporary pieces.

Gail Thomas, music director at Praise Cathedral in Pinellas Park, is still planning for the season but has made a few decisions.

"Last year we had a musical drama. This year, we're going to have more drama than music," she said.

Thomas and other music directors said they get plenty of nudging from music companies, which ply them with suggestions months ahead of each religious season. Christmas music arrives soon after Easter, and music for Easter starts arriving in January, they say.

Priore of Park Place Wesleyan said he's reviewing "a big stack" of Christmas music but will begin rehearsals for the church's annual fall production this weekend.

"When that hits the ground, I've got to be coming right behind with Christmas music," he said.

At Christ United Methodist, though, Buchanan and Stevens were already in the Christmas spirit, their organ-piano duet filling the large sanctuary, even as the temperature climbed into the 90s.

If you go

Planning ahead

- Winter Choral Festival, Christ United Methodist Church choirs and St. Petersburg College Choir, 3 p.m. Dec. 2, Christ United Methodist Church, 467 First Ave. N, St. Petersburg. Call (727) 822-3343.

- Christmas Musical, the Second Time Island Singers, 7 p.m. Dec. 13, Lakewood United Methodist Church, 5995 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S, St. Petersburg, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 16, the Island Chapel, 1271 Pinellas Bayway S, Tierra Verde.

To join the choir and reserve a music book and CD, contact the Island Chapel on Tierra Verde (727) 866-7362 or www.islandchapel.org/.

- Park Place Wesleyan, fall production, Made to Worship, 6 p.m. Oct. 7; 2007 Living Christmas Tree, 6 p.m. Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17, 19 and 21, and 4 p.m. Dec. 23, 4400 70th Ave. N, Pinellas Park, (727) 526-3674 or www.ppwc.org.

[Last modified August 25, 2007, 22:25:08]