The Morton Community Chorus, of Morton, IL, has been performing Handel's Messiah annually for many, many years. The picture above is from our November 19, 2023 performance. Although, "Morton" is in the name, it is perhaps a misnomer, as people from all over Central Illinois regularly participate in the choir and orchestra. See our Memories of 2023 page for more pictures and a video of our performance.
WCBU FM Peoria Public Radio and Arts Partners of Central Illinois radio program "Out And About" interviewed Phil Witzig regarding Messiah 2015. Although about a past performance, it nonetheless has some interesting dialog regarding the production in general. Listen here.
WCBU FM Peoria Public Radio and Arts Partners of Central Illinois radio program "Out And About" interviewed Phil Witzig regarding Messiah 2015. Although about a past performance, it nonetheless has some interesting dialog regarding the production in general. Listen here.
From Morton to Carnegie Hall
2023 was a special year for the Morton Community Chorus! We were invited to participate in the Carnegie Hall Messiah concert on Sunday, November 26, 2023 in New York City! On Thanksgiving day, 30 members of our choir flew to New York City to rehearse with and perform Messiah on one of world's most famous concert halls. We were vetted through a confidential audition process in which the organizers reviewed past videos of us posted online. We joined others from around the world in a choir of 200 singing Messiah on the stage of historic Carnegie Hall! It was certainly a memorable trip. Listen to the interview with Phil Witzig after the trip on WPEO radio.
Help Support our Choir
Our annual concerts are held at Grace Church in Morton. Although Grace Church graciously allows us to use their beautiful sanctuary, our annual productions of Messiah are community events, performed by the Morton Community Choir and Orchestra. The concerts are free, and no tickets are required. The majority of our support is received from concertgoers through a free-will offering at the doors. Even if you missed this year's concert, if you have a passion to help this kind of event continue, you can still give online using the Donate button above. Money received throughout the year is put toward the following year's concert. (Online donations are handled for us through the Morton Fine Arts Association who directs 100% of donations through the donate button to us.) We also want to thank the following business sponsors for their help in underwriting our 2023 concert:
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Interested in Singing With Us?
There is nothing quite as thrilling as singing this moving masterpiece of music literature in a wonderful space with full choir, orchestra, and organ. If you have interest in this type of music, and the voice and talent to sing it, contact us at [email protected] to discuss the possibility of joining us!
Our Distinguished 2023 Soloists Were:
Angela Born, Soprano: Angela Born is honored to make her Messiah soloist debut with the Morton Community Chorus and Orchestra. Earning critical acclaim for her “rich, clear voice” that is “geared towards storytelling” (Chicagoland Musical Theatre), Angela was most recently seen performing the role of The Secretary in The Consul (Menotti) with Third Eye Theatre Ensemble. As a staunch advocate for new music, Angela is sought as a desired interpreter of new classical music. Favorite new opera roles include Lucinda in Dark Sisters (Nico Muhly), Patience in Patience and Sarah (Paula Kimper), Harriet in The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace (Kamala Sankaram), and Meg Murry in the workshop production of A Wrinkle in Time (Libby Larsen). Favorite traditional operatic roles include Mimì in La Femme Bohème, Musetta in a traditional La Bohème, the titular role in Princess Ida, and Despina in Così fan tutte. Angela is a company member with Third Eye Theatre Ensemble and has had the pleasure to perform with the Lyric Opera of the North, Loveland Opera Theatre, Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, Opera West, Valkyrie Ensemble, Thompson Street Opera Company, and Transgressive Theatre-Opera. Within concert work, Angela has toured throughout the US and been praised for her “impeccable musicianship” and “fire and dramatic conviction” (Chicago Classical Review). She was recently seen as the featured guest artist with the Peoria Area Civic Chorale and Artemis Chamber Orchestra, and is the recipient of multiple Chicago DCASE grants. She is the 2023 songSLAM winner for her premiere performance of Michelle Isaac’s “What Every Woman Must Not Say,” a new art song with poetry by suffragist Alice Duer Miller. Upcoming engagements include the role of Judith in a black box production of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Ouroboros Opera and a touring children’s production of Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel as the Mother/Witch with the Lyric Opera of the North. Angela received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at Illinois Wesleyan University and her Masters in Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Learn more at www.angelaborn.com.
Denise Gamez, Alto: Mezzo-soprano Denise Gamez sings recital, oratorio and symphonic repertoire with orchestras throughout the United States and abroad. She has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis, San Francisco Opera, Toledo, South Dakota, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, and Wheaton College symphony orchestras, the Peoria Bach Festival, and performed twice with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica under the baton of John Nelson. She has collaborated with other conductors including Patrick Summers, Dennis Russell Davies, David Bowden, Delta David Gier, Lee Kesselman, and Sherrill Milnes in repertoire including Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, the Verdi Requiem, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, the Brahms Alto Rhapsody, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the Bach Saint Matthew Passion, and Handel’s Messiah, which she will perform later this season with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra. At the Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera, where she received the Gropper Memorial Award, she sang Dame Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff, and Fidalma in Cimarosa’s The Secret Marriage. At Wheaton, she played Mrs. Noye in the Wheaton Opera Music Theater production of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, featuring Will Liverman, and has performed with Daniel Sommerville, Mary Hopper, and Paul Wiens. A graduate of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, she currently serves at Wheaton as Special Guest Lecturer in Voice.
Trevor Mitchell, Tenor: Trevor Mitchell’s career has taken him across the U.S. as well as to Austria, Italy, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and other destinations in Europe. Recently audiences heard him in Bach’s B-Minor Mass, Weihnachts-Oratorium, St. Matthew Passion, cantatas 76, 135, 177 and St. John Passion, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Vivaldi’s Beatus Vir, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah, and in recital. Trevor also sang concert versions of the Handel operas Semele and Ariodante. With Chicago a cappella, Trevor completed a recording of Hanukah music to be released in the winter of 2023. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described Trevor’s voice as a “large and remarkably sweet sound.” And, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote about his “…warm sound and technical ease.” Trevor, who has frequently performed on WFMT (Chicago), has recorded albums with Cedille Records, Gothic Records, and is a featured soloist on a Sony Classical release of Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Choirs and Orchestra of St. John Cantius. In the spring of 2023, Trevor returned as guest soloist with Bella Voce and The Newberry Consort in a collaboration of an all Praetorius program and performed Bach’s Cantata 26 at the Peoria Bach Festival. Upcoming projects include Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions, Telemann’s Cantata, ‘Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt’, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. This fall Trevor will be soloist with Elgin Symphony Orchestra and Chorale in Beethoven’s Mass in C followed by a recital and then performances of Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium.
John Hines, Bass: John is a concert and opera singer, and teacher of singing. He earned degrees from Shenandoah, Kent State and Heidelberg University as well as advanced vocal and operatic training from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the American Institute of Music Studies in Graz, Austria. In 2006 he joined the music faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, and since that time has also maintained an active performance schedule as a concert artist and masterclass clinician throughout the United States, Canada, Austria, Italy, Sweden and Russia. Most notable of these performances include his 2013 Carnegie Hall debut in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and the many recitals he presented in prestigious concert halls of St. Petersburg, Russia from 2007-2016. As a versatile artist possessing great vocal stamina, ease of flexibility, vocal range and a rare basso profundo timbre, his oratorio repertoire spans many style periods to include works such as Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Rossini and Dvořák’s settings of the Stabat Mater, and the Requiem Masses of Fauré, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann and Verdi. As an operatic performer he has especially enjoyed performances as Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Falstaff in Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor, Reverend Olin Blitch in Floyd’s Susannah, Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca, and both the roles of Hunding and Wotan in Wagner’s Die Walküre.
Peter Wykert, Organ: Peter Wykert, Piano/Organ: Peter is Cantor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Peoria. As Cantor, he serves as organist, conducts the adult choir, youth choir, handbells, and brass, and plans all worship services. He also composes and arranges music for Trinity’s ensembles and coordinates the livestream worship services. Outside of Trinity, he serves Concordia Lutheran School as accompanist, directs the German American Central Society Choirs, and freelances as organist, most recently with ISU’s Wind Symphony and Concert Choir. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Concordia University Chicago and has earned certificates in the curriculums First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfège.