By Heidi Trautmann

Weeks before the advent season the members of the Kyrenia Chamber Choir get their notes for the season out and get prepared to bring us the news of Christmas as they have done for so many years before. In one of my reviews over the last years I had the chance to learn more about the background of the Kyrenia Chamber Choir, so please klick on the link to learn more.

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This year the yearly Christmas concert was overshadowed by the catastrophic and sad situations due to the weather for a couple of days in which four young people lost their lives. The first concert had to be postponed for this reason, however, the Crypt of the Bellapais Abbey was nevertheless well attended.

It was a well-chosen programme we got to hear from 20 voices, – if I counted right –among them one man only, conducted by Iris Langford, herself a beautiful soprano voice, with the support of Rauf Kasimov as accompanist on a small piano. I have attached the programme hereafter, also the carols that the audience was invited to join in, for you to have the lyrics available for your own Christmas day celebrations. The two concerts, the second took place one day later at the Karmi Church, was in support of the Oncology Dept,. of the Nicosia Public Hospital.

The Abbey has a wonderful atmosphere and with the Choir members clad in festive robes of black and white, somehow the history of the Abbey became alive with the many voices filling the arches. Some soloists stepped forward with beautiful pieces,  guest singer Katie Economidou Ave Maria; Jo Black, Bridget Kerr and Maxene Shailer as trio singing Leonard Cohen’s famous Halleluia, Susan Carling and Alan Carling; Rae Tilley and Iris Langford pieces that will find on the programme. The acoustic in the upper hall is by far better in my opinion but the atmosphere down in the crypt is more familiar.

A big thank you for the music, for the many weeks of rehearsals and for the joy you delivered.