HALLELUJAH It’s too easy to limit your holiday music selection to whatever tune is blaring over the sound system at the mall or another “everyone-join-in” performance of Messiah. We challenge you to expand your repertoire. Excellent Texas choirs affiliated with the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses present music celebrating the Yuletide season, from serious pieces to medleys with a nod to Hanukkah. Dallas has its world-famous Turtle Creek Chorale , whose two hundred members always put on a surprising new show. “We are your one-stop shopping for the holidays,” says artistic director Timothy Seelig. “We’ve got your Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and your solstice all sewn up.” This year they’re Makin’ a List . . . Checkin’ It Twice, with three performances at the Meyerson Symphony Center and five at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel. Also at the Wyndham Anatole, the Women’s Chorus of Dallas chimes in with Kirke Mechem’s The Seven Joys of Christmas and other holiday tunes. Over in Cowtown, the Fort Worth Men’s Chorus revisits Martin Hall, on the Texas Wesleyan University campus, for an evening of merriment. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Houston celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary with three performances of Silver Bells at the Wortham Theater Center and one show at the Grand 1894 Opera House, in Galveston. San Antonio’s Alamo City Men’s Chorale highlights Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest by Conrad Susa (in English and Spanish) at the historic Travis Park United Methodist Church. And in Austin, at the acoustically excellent University Baptist Church, the Capital City Men’s Chorus tackles some challenging music—excerpts from Benjamin Britten’s otherworldly A Ceremony of Carols. (See Austin: Music/Dance; Dallas: Music/Dance; Fort Worth: Music/Dance; Galveston: Music/Dance; Houston: Music/Dance; and San Antonio: Music/Dance.)
