Renowned Singers to Ring in Lehigh Valley Holiday Season

You know it’s Christmas in the Lehigh Valley when you hear the angelic voices of the St. Luke’s Singers!

All are invited to the Singers’ annual Christmas concert – a proud Lehigh Valley tradition – on Sunday, November 24, at Wesley Methodist Church (2540 Center Street in Bethlehem).  Preludes begin at 2:45 p.m. and the concert begins at 3 p.m.

A beloved Lehigh Valley institution, the St. Luke’s Singers are a renowned hospital-based choir that performs on behalf of St. Luke’s University Health Network, the Lehigh Valley’s leading health care provider – and the region's oldest, founded in Bethlehem, the Christmas City, to care for iron and steel workers in 1872.

The Singers dulcet tones warm the cockles of our hearts while raising funds for various St. Luke’s community programs. Since 1991, the Singers have collected more than a quarter-million dollars for a multitude of altruistic endeavors.

On the 24th, the Gloria from Haydn’s 1796 Missa Sancti Bernard von Offida, often known at the “Heilgimesse,” will open the concert.  Then the choir will present new settings of traditional Christmas hymns:

“A Celtic French Carol” will present a spirited arrangement of Il est né, le divn Enfant  with violin. “All My Heart This Night Rejoices” arranged by Trevor Manor will include a haunting horn part. “Children, Go Where I Send Thee” will close the first half of the concert with a new setting of the traditional spiritual by Ruth Elaine Schram.

The second half of the concert will feature a few holiday favorites, including “Carol of the Bells” and “Silver Bells.” The women of the choir will sing “Candy Cane Lane,” a new holiday song by Jennifer Zuffinetti. The men, meanwhile, will sing “Stars Shall I Find,” a setting of Sara Teasdale’s poem by Victor C. Johnson. The concert will close with the rousing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” by John Rutter. 

Brian Snyder, accompanist extraordinaire, backs the choir.  Soprano Michele Giletto will perform, as will the St. Luke’s Festival Trombone Choir from Philadelphia.  Featured instrumentalists will include Dave Heine, Ron DeGrandis and Carl Hittner.

Tickets are $12 and available at the Gift Shops at St. Luke’s Allentown, Anderson, Bethlehem and Warren of by calling 610-759-6325.

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.  Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 34 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 263 residents and fellows.  St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system with Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  In 2019, three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals were St. Luke’s hospitals.  St. Luke’s University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health seven times total and five years in a row. St. Luke’s has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.