This is the year to catch up on a 30-year-old tradition.<\/p>\n
Juneau Lyric Opera’s annual Midwinter Vocal Festival closes with a concert at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall, Sunday Jan. 6, and it will feature highlights from the past three decades of festivals. The festival runs in late December and early January — this year Dec. 28-Jan.5 — and is an excursion of singing workshops and classes that closes with a concert.<\/p>\n
“I think people are really going to enjoy the concert,” said Lena Simmons, who has been involved in every Midwinter Vocal Festival. “We’ll sing some classical but also some Broadway-type things.”<\/p>\n
[PHOTOS: Juneau Cabaret Extravaganza<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n Simmons said the festival has grown significantly over the decades.<\/p>\n When it started, there were about 23 participants, Simmons said. Now, there are typically about 50 singers.<\/p>\n “The 23 of us didn’t know what we were doing,” Simmons said.<\/p>\n Back then, the first end-of-festival performance included just one piece by Mozart and one by Schubert.<\/p>\n “We’ve got eight or nine pieces this year.” Simmons said. “We can do more, and we come together faster,”<\/p>\n Making history<\/strong><\/p>\n The festival has had the same director for the past 30 years, Byron McGilvray, a resident of Athens, Texas, renowned conductor and retired music professor.<\/p>\n McGilvray, former head of the vocal division of San Francisco State University, said he became involved in the annual event after he was approached by Juneauites at a fine arts festival in Fairbanks. They were interested in starting a winter music festival.<\/p>\n “I said, ‘Sure we’ll come,’” McGilvray said. “That’s the way it all started.”<\/p>\n Pianist Janis Capelle, joined him for the initial festival and over the years has been involved in “at least half” of the 30 festivals with some time off in between the festivals’ earliest and more recent years.<\/p>\n