Community Christmas Concert

By Sharon Manthei & Yvonne Gilbert

            As the days begin to get shorter and colder, our minds begin to drift towards the coming holiday season. Once Thanksgiving arrives, everyone is concentrating on Christmas. The ladies of Ashland’s Wednesday Music Club have been concentrating on their Annual Community Christmas Concert which is held on the first Sunday in December each year.

            Ashland’s Wednesday Music Club was founded by a group of nine (9) women in 1913. Their purpose was, and still is, “to inspire and to stimulate musical activity among members and to promote musical culture in the city of Ashland and the vicinity”.

            In 1917, plans proceeded for women in Ashland to become associate members and then avail themselves to this splendid opportunity and to assist in giving Ashland a musical up-lift such as it had never known. Their plea was “Give us Music”. Thus, artist recitals were held in homes. All types of musical programs for youth and adults were presented which included garden musical programs, dances and their biggest accomplishment of all, the Annual Community Christmas Concert.

            Mrs. John C. (Myrta B.) Chapple came up with the idea in 1918 to have a Community Christmas Concert. The concert has been carried on continuously each year since its inception. Each church in the city is invited to contribute a Christmas number, which can be vocal or instrumental, solo, chorus or choir. All of these musicians, along with the general public gather together in the United Presbyterian-Congregational Church for the Sunday afternoon concert. The United Presbyterian-Congregational Church has been used each year because it is the only church in Ashland that can hold the large number of participants and audience. Most years, it is “standing room only” for the concert.

            The ladies of the Ashland Wednesday Music Club arrange and sponsor this program with great honor and carry on its heritage. The program is the clubs “Gift to the Community” each December.

            The  Annual Community Christmas Concert is  held  in the United Presbyterian-Congregational Church located at 214 Vaughn Avenue in Ashland. The concert is always free and open to all! If you have never been to this concert, consider stopping in this year, you’ll be glad you did, but come early to get a good seat. It’s the perfect way to begin the Christmas Season.