Lynn Untermeyer Miller hasn’t seen every Candlelight Concert.
There have been 84 years of them. The Staples High School Class of 1971 graduate is only 71 years old.
But she’s been to plenty, beginning with her years as a student.
She’ll be there again this week, for the Staples Music Department’s annual gift to the town.
She’ll be joined by hundreds of other grateful Westporters. Parents will proudly watch their teenage singers, and orchestra and band members, as they perform complex pieces with talent, passion and pride.
A small part of the large Candlelight Concert.
Westporters whose own kid have long graduated — or never went to Staples, or are not yet there — will thrill to the concert too, appreciating the mix of tradition and change that has sustained the Candlelight Concert for over 8 decades.
Middle and elementary school boys and girls will dream of the day they can take part in the remarkable event.
And alumni will stride, with excitement and smiles, onto the stage for the finale: a rousing rendition of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.” The massed group — a couple of hundred current musicians, and dozens who preceded them — is part of what makes the Candlelight Concert so special.
The “Hallelujah Chorus” ends the Candlelight Concert. The “Sing We Noel” processional begins it. (Photos/Lynn Untermeyer Miller)
But none of it would happen without this week’s Unsung Heroes: the Music Department.
The staff — Jeri Brima, Carrie Mascaro, Kevin Mazzarella, Lauren Pine, Caitlin Serpliss and Gregg Winters, plus townwide music coordinator Steve Zimmerman and administrative assistant Liz Shaffer — have been working toward this moment since the summer.
They have great talent to work with. Our superb middle and elementary school music teachers deserve a great hand, for preparing the high schoolers so well.
John Ohanian created the first Candlelight Concert, in 1940.
No list of Unsung Heroes would be complete without the men and women who created, nurtured and grew the Candlelight Concert, from before World War II to today.
John Ohanian, George Weigle, John Hanulik, Bob Genualdi, Jack Adams, Nick Mariconda, Alice Lipson, Luke Rosenberg, and many other music educators, are the reason Candlelight has evolved, flourished — and made the holidays special — for over 80 years.
They, and everyone else associated with the Candlelight Concert, are true Unsung Heroes.
Take a bow!
ENCORE: One of the great Candlelight traditions is the “Sing We Noel” processional. Click here to learn about its unique back story.
(Unsung Hero is a weekly “06880” feature. To nominate a hero, email 06880blog@gmail.com. To support our work, please click here. Thank you!)
Does Westport still have elementary school orchestras? John Hanulick used to come to Burr Farms school and give private instruction in non-string instruments in the cafetorium–Mr Heard and Mr. Trevino gave the string-instrument instruction.) My 4th grade classroom, with Marie Schubert as my teacher, was next to the cafetorium and Miss Schubert (Ms. didn’t exist then) and Mr. Hanulick frequently crossed paths. At the end of the school year they got married.
Thank you for the back story of Sing We Noel. Hands down, it is my favorite part of the Candlelight Concert. I was lucky enough in 1998 that as the processing choir stopped in the aisle to sing, my son (a senior that year) was right next to where I was sitting.
My memories of singing in this concert back in 1968, 1969, and 1970 are among the fondest of my younger years. What a truly blessed gift the music departments in our public schools are to every person in this beautiful town.
This has been on ebay forever. It is from 1962.
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John Ohanian attended Saugatuck Congregational Church, so if he first heard the song at vesper services, that’s where he likely first heard it.
Dan, you come up with such great stories! Thank you for all you do!
I think I’ve posted this before, but I’ll repeat it. John Ohanian was my stepfather, and he first heard “Sing We Noel” in 1954 at the Christmas Vespers services of Northfield and Mount Hermon Schools (now Northfield Mount Hermon), from which I graduated in 1955. NMH still uses the piece as its processional.