Extending Christ’s Welcome
Embodying God’s Love
Telling Our Stories
Sharing the Journey
Old North Festival Chorus—Marblehead
Contact: Kathleen Fay | 781-608-2782
E-mail: kathy@bemf.org
Website: www.oldnorthfestivalchorus.org
Concert: Festival Chorus Christmas Concerts at Marblehead’s Old North Church, directed by Maria van Kalken
Dates/Times:
Saturday, December 5, 2026, 8pm
Sunday, December 6, 2026, 7:30pm
Location: Old North Church; 35 Washington Street, Marblehead
Program:
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Giovanni Alberto Ristori: Missa per il Sanctissimo Natale di Nostro Signore
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J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio (excerpts)
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Music by American composers and arrangers, including spirituals and jazz arrangements (in honor of the ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of America)
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Craig Courtney: A Musicological Journey Through the Twelve Days of Christmas
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Arrangements of seasonal music for chorus and orchestra with audience participation
OLD NORTH FESTIVAL CHORUS—MARBLEHEAD
PRESENTS 46th ANNUAL HOLIDAY CONCERTS
Directed by Maria van Kalken
Celebrating her 38th season as Old North’s Music Director
The 46th annual Old North Festival Chorus Christmas Concerts—presented each year in Marblehead as part of the festive Christmas Walk—will take place on Saturday, December 5 at 8pm, and Sunday, December 6 at 7:30pm in the sanctuary of the historic Old North Church Meeting House, 35 Washington Street, Marblehead, MA.
Celebrating her 38th season as Director of the Festival Chorus, the 80 voices of the Festival Chorus and full Orchestra will be led by Maria van Kalken, Minister of Music at Old North Church. The centerpiece of the December 2026 Festival Chorus Concerts will be a stunningly beautiful Christmas Mass (Missa per il Sanctissimo Natale di Nostro Signore) composed by Giovanni Alberto Ristori, a contemporary of Vivaldi.
The program will also include excerpts from J.S. Bach’s magnificent Christmas Oratorio, and in honor of the ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of America, music by American composers and arrangers, including spirituals, jazz arrangements, and culminating with the beloved A Musicological Journey Through the Twelve Days of Christmas by Craig Courtney.
As always, the Festival Chorus program will include traditional music of the season with audience participation, and all accompanied by the outstanding Old North Festival Orchestra. This season’s ensemble of superb Old North soloists includes: Anne Burgett, soprano; Holly Cameron, soprano; and Kevin Hayden, tenor—all veterans of Old North’s Senior Choir and Music Program and returning after numerous previous seasons.
Picturesque Marblehead offers the perfect backdrop at holiday time for the popular Festival Chorus concerts. The entire town is transformed into an enchanted village, with shop owners offering hot cider and cheer, plenty of holiday music to delight shoppers, and the not-to-be-missed Festival Chorus concerts.
The Festival Chorus gathers Old North’s Senior Choir together with enthusiastic singers—amateur to professional—from many neighboring communities in Marblehead. Each season, the Festival Chorus welcomes new voices while maintaining a devoted ensemble from previous years; this season’s Chorus totals over eighty participants. Encouraged by a love for music and a reputation as the North Shore’s most spirited and talented volunteer choirs, the Festival Chorus & Orchestra has been lauded for its outstanding performances of major choral works each year.
Director Maria van Kalken holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Oberlin and New England Conservatories of Music—primarily under the tutelage of the late Yuko Hayashi and Donald Teeters—and has amassed an education abroad in Amsterdam (Holland) and Pistoia (Italy).
Tickets for Festival Chorus performances are priced at $35 and may be purchased in advance at the following Marblehead business locations (starting on November 1, 2026): Arnould Gallery, Maria’s Gourmet at Village Plaza, and Crosby’s Marketplace; tickets may also be purchased online at www.onchurch.org/festivalchorus. The performances will be approximately 90 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.
To reserve tickets in advance by telephone, or for additional information, please call 781-608-2782; information is also available on the Old North Festival Chorus website: www.oldnorthfestivalchorus.org.
The Old North Festival Chorus is supported, in part, by a grant from the Marblehead Cultural Council as administered through the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Old North Church is accessible for the physically impaired.
Maria van Kalken, Director of Music
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Maria van Kalken, Minister of Music at Old North Church and Director of the Festival Chorus, celebrates her thirty-fifth (36th) season in charge of Old North’s flourishing music program. Maria earned the degree of Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, Ohio) and Master of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston, MA). Her studies abroad have included pipe organ performance at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, under the patronage of the Rotary International Scholarship Fund, and the completion of an historical organ performance program in Pistoia, Italy.
In addition to her work as Minister of Music – playing organ and directing the Senior Choir – Maria is Artistic Director of Concerts at Old North, presenting between two and six chamber music concerts annually, in the acoustically-glorious Old North Church in Marblehead.
Maria is a senior staff member of the Boston Early Music Festival (www.bemf.org); as Assistant to the Executive Director, Maria is liaison to musicians from all over the world for the Festival’s biennial Baroque opera project, as well as the annual Chamber Opera Series, the Boston and New York Concert Series (at the Morgan Library & Museum), and opera touring and recording projects.
Liz Smith, Bell Choir Director
Liz Smith of Swampscott, MA has been joyfully ringing handbells since 2008, when she joined her church’s bell choir. She soon began ringing with New England Ringers, one of New England’s finest audition handbell choirs. Liz has loved making music since childhood, when she studied piano and played clarinet, saxophone, and oboe in many school and community music ensembles. She is thrilled to be with the Old North Church Hand Bell Choir. Liz is also a math tutor at Hadley Elementary School in Swampscott. When she is not taking pictures of the sunset or collecting sea glass, Liz spends her free time with her husband, their daughter, and their three grown sons.
Holly Cameron
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Holly Cameron, soprano, is thrilled to sing with the Festival Chorus and Orchestra for her fourteenth season! She has been hailed a “marvelous femme fatale” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) with “rip-roaring high notes” (The Boston Globe). Some of her favorite operatic roles include Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Musetta (La bohème), and Abigail (The Crucible), among others. On the concert stage, Ms. Cameron has appeared as a soloist in works such as Carmina Burana, Brahms’ Requiem, Poulenc’s Gloria, Mozart’s Requiem, Fauré’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Bach’s St. John’s Passion and St. Matthew’s Passion. A recipient of numerous honors, Ms. Cameron was a New England Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has won awards in the Shreveport Opera Competition, Sarasota Artist Series competition and the National Orpheus Vocal Competition, among others.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Voice Performance from New England Conservatory and a Master’s Degree in Voice Performance from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Holly also has a growing reputation for her interpretation of the blues and soul genres and can be regularly heard with the Chris Fitz “Bigger Soul” Band. For more information and other upcoming performances, please visit: www.hollycameronsoprano.com
Anne Burgett
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Anne Burgett, from Swampscott, Massachusetts, is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance
at Boston University, studying voice with Professor Penelope Bitzas. Anne is passionate about
performing operatic repertoire, sacred works, and art song repertoire. She has performed operatic roles such as the Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Cathleen in Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea, and most recently, Zina in Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters. She was the soprano soloist in the Mozart Requiem at Boston University in the fall of 2023. Anne has worked as a soloist and ensemble member with Northwestern University Chorale, and was the soprano soloist at the First Presbyterian Church in Deerfield, Illinois. In addition to performing, Anne teaches voice lessons to students ages 6-22, and is an Aural Skills instructor at Boston University. She has been a member of Old North Church for ten years. This coming year, Anne will be performing the roles of Rosalba in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas and Nella in Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with the Boston University Opera Institute, and will be performing her Master’s Degree Recital in the spring.
Kevin Hayden
Kevin Hayden, tenor, performed with The Old North Church Festival Chorus for thirteen seasons. Mr. Hayden is familiar to audiences in New England and beyond having performed with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Pine Mountain Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Boston Opera Collaborative, Charleston Chamber Opera Company, Cape Cod Opera, Masterworks Chorale, Opera del West, Boston University Opera Institute, Opera by the Bay, The Lynn Concert Singers and Trinity Church among others. Kevin graduated from Boston University with his Master of Music Degree and The University of Oklahoma with his Bachelor of Music Degree. Past operatic roles include Tamino (Die Zauberflote), Alfredo (La traviata), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), and The Doctor (A Month in the Country). Kevin lives in Marblehead with his wife, Jennifer and two children Sully and Lizzy.