By Amy Modesti
It was a beautiful afternoon to celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ on Sunday as local residents attended the 16th Annual Easter Cantata held at the Petersburg Baptist Church. This year’s cantata was presented by the Taconic Valley Community Chorus. The previous evening the chorus performed the cantata at the Heart Theater (the Former Sacred Heart Church, now the Advocare Foundation Limited.)
Musical Director, Karen Webster, and alto singer, Leslie Green, opened up the cantata with a brief rendition of The Palms; a piano duet followed with How Great Thou Art, before the Taconic Valley Community Chorus took the stage and encouraged the church patrons to join them in singing their first song, Crown Him with Many Colors.
Following How Great Thou Art was the hymn, Behold Our God. It was interesting to hear the Christmas song lyrics of O Come All Ye Faithful mixed in with the verses of Behold Our God. Normally, the Christmas song is sung during the holiday season but it was nice to hear it sung during Easter. Open the Gates also referenced both Christian and Catholic phrases in Hosanna in the highest and blessed is the name of the lord that one would often hear during a time of prayer.
Following each song, each church lecturer spoke the words of the gospel, coinciding with the songs that were being sung throughout the cantata. Following Jesus in Gethsame, a solemn tune written by Charles Wesley, a lecturer had mentioned that the first Easter was celebrated on a low note due to Christ’s death. Christ had suffered and tasted death for everybody at the time. Can’t Keep-a-Glory In featured the chorus singing the tune acapella while the percussion duo of Dan Lamontagne and Matina Patsos played the drums and bongos simultaneously throughout the jovial tune. Your Great Name focused on the patrons celebrating the wonders of Jesus’ name.
Concluding the cantata, Lamontagne came to the proctor to give some final words about Jesus Christ and how he was a guiding light for the choir before they had performed on stage. Jesus was there in times of trouble and never leaves his followers during times of trouble. There were some members of the choir that were unavailable in this celebration due to illness and personal matters. Despite other members not being present at the cantata, the choir was still able to perform a beautiful cantata inside the church. The cantata was concluded with their rendition of My Lighthouse with those attending clapping along to the final verses of the tune, and Christ the Lord is Risen Today, sung both by the everyone in the church and the choir.