Dear Editor,
Ahhhh, the Messiah! 69th year the performance has happened in Selma by the Selma Choral Society. I am thankful to be where they honor and perform this artistry, this truth. Thank you Selma Choral Society and Gery Anderson, Gordon Welch and Sarah Cater for your dedication through the years. I would be interested in knowing how it started in 1947.

I am appreciative of being raised in Selma and having Mrs. Florence Ehrensperger as my choral music teacher in the Selma Public Schools from 1953 until 1965. I imagine she may have been involved in the Choral Society during the early days of the Messiah.

I remember going to the Church Street Methodist Church and seeing a performance of the Messiah. I loved it then, and I love it now. At A.G. Parrish in choral music, Mrs. Ehrensperger had all her students, grades 7-12, learn the Hallelujah chorus so we could sing it from memory. It was awesome, the choir filling the stage all over on risers and spilling off to risers all across on the floor also, so my thanks go back to her. There are others whom I do not know who helped further the tradition. Today, the choir was filled with excellent soloists and those who gave up many Tuesday nights this fall to be ready to sing the choruses.

Some sing every year and some I knew and spoke to afterward, but all of you were super and really set the tone of the Christmas Season in Selma and in my heart. Some have gone on to sing in God’s Heaven and they were missed.

Thanks be to our Mighty God for filling George Frederick Handel with this oratorio, composed in 1741, taking only 24 days!

Once when performed in a theatre in 1743, the press stated “the work’s subject matter was too exalted to be performed in a theatre, particularly by secular singer-actresses.”

The press may be right. The Messiah Oratorio is truly glorious performed in the lovely Selma churches housing believers in our Mighty God for many years, sung by voices reflecting his glory because they believe and live the truth they sing. Thank you, thank you, father.  Merry Christmas, Selma!
Gail Box Ingram
Valley Grande