Christmas holiday performances put everyone in the mood for sharing joy. Handel’s Messiah is the “greatest of all time” as it is the most widely performed work around the world that celebrates the joyful relationship with our “wonderful counselor” through voices and instruments. The annual sing-along will is a joyful expression of the Hill Country’s outstanding vocal talents. Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride will send everyone forward in joy as they prepare for the holiday.
Haley Dove Montoya, soprano
Haley Dove Montoya, lyric soprano, has been performing a wide variety of operatic, classical, Music Theater, and sacred music repertoire for over 25 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degree in Music/Vocal Performance, and maintained a private voice studio for 20 years. Haley currently is the Music Director at Kerrville First United Methodist Church where she enjoys implementing a wide variety of music and programming, both inside the church and out in the community. Haley lives with her husband, Ben, and their two children, Elias and Isla
Seth Lafler, tenor
Seth Lafler is Director of Choral Music at Tivy High School in Kerrville, TX. He holds an M.Ed. in Administration from Lamar University and earned a B.A. in Music at Texas State University. He also serves as the Director of Choral Music at First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville. Lafler made his international solo debut when this work was featured on a new works recital at the 2025 International Trombone Festival in London, Ontario. In addition to solo work, he regularly performs with San Antonio Chamber Choir.
Music Program
Anderson – Sleigh Ride
Arr. Holcombe – American Christmas Folk Suite
Vaughan-Williams – Fantasia on Greensleeves
Wizards in Winter (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
White Christmas
S. Prokofiev – Overture on Hebrew Themes
Sing Along of Christmas carols
Handel – Messiah
-Selected movements
Haley Dove Montoya, soprano, Virginia Dupuy, alto, Seth Lafler, tenor, Christopher Besch, bass
Hill Country Chorale with Claire Rabson, artistic director/conductor, Susan Matteson, accompanist
Ticket Alert!
Our Holiday Concert always sells out! Don’t delay reserving your seat! Click here to get tickets
While you are at it, book your ticket to our January 3rd POPS concert–A Time To Dance! It also is a traditional sell-out. This concert will celebrate Jazz with favorite popular tunes from New Orleans to Broadway to Big Band. Click here to get tickets
To never miss out on our great orchestral offerings, consider becoming a Season Ticket holder. Find details here
Virginia Dupuy, alto
Virginia Dupuy, 2022-23 recipient of SMU’s highest faculty honor, the Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Award, has earned a reputation as one of the finest recital and concert singers in the United States. She has championed American music in recordings of the Grammy-nominated Voces Americanas, and she premiered the role of Crone in Conrad Susa’s opera The Wise Women. Fanfare magazine hailed her recording of Dominick Argento’s Pulitzer Prize Winner From the Diary of Virginia Woolf as one of the top classical recordings of the year.
Dupuy made her Lincoln Center debut with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall and has appeared with the orchestras of Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, Eugene and Honolulu. Professor of voice at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, she is a leading scholar and interpreter of music set to Emily Dickinson’s texts. Gasparo Records, Inc. released Dwell in Possibility, a CD of 24 Dickinson poems and one letter performed by Dupuy with Shields-Collins Bray of Voices of Change set to music by her esteemed friends, including Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lee Hoiby, Dan Welcher, Richard Hundley, Simon Sargon and William Jordan. She continued her performances of contemporary composers with Voices of Change and the Cliburn Modern composers concerts with the composers Osvaldo Golijov, Richard Danielpour, Ricky Ian Gordon, Mark Adamo, Jennifer Higdon and William Bolcom present. She sang songs and duets, including texts of Sister Helen Prejean, with Heggie and pianist and producer Shields-Collins Bray at the Cliburn at the Modern in Fort Worth. She continues to perform Emily Dickinson in Song throughout the country.
Dupuy performs regularly with Dallas-based Voices of Change. A champion of poetry, she has performed at Poetry at Round Top, a poetry festival in Texas; Shakespeare Club of Dallas; and has made numerous appearances in recital in Amherst, Massachusetts. Dupuy is a founder of the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas (now Greater Dallas Choral Society for Children and Youth) and Conspirare and has created Fine Arts Chamber Music Scholarships for piano and voice students at Carter High School in Dallas. She volunteers with Project Transformation with her spouse, Bob, in literacy advocacy with children of Dallas. She serves on the Rogene Russell Music Scholarship committee and has been a member of the Texas Book Festival board. Currently, she is a member of the educational committee of the Dallas Opera.
Christopher Besch, bass
Bass-baritone Christopher Besch is proud to have performed in eight countries on three continents with such conductors as Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, and Jeffrey Thomas. His “commanding stage presence and rich resonance of deep bass sound” (DC Theatre Scene) has been heard in over 90 works running the gamut of musical styles such as early music, grand opera, and modern art song. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Voice at the Texas State University and is the 210 Festival Young Artist Program Director for The Orchestra San Antonio, an education and performance organization serving the San Antonio area. His primary pedagogical interests include the acoustics and psychoacoustics of the voice with a particular bent towards how hearing influences the perception of the sung voice.
