Nazareth’s classical Christmas concerts return home

After Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon forced the annual Liturgical Festival of religiously themed classical music to relocate to Jerusalem last year, the event is returning this time around to its home city, Nazareth.

This year’s festival, with five concerts held over three days in two churches, performed by the Galilee Orchestra with choirs, soloists, and ensembles — along with Christmas markets and walking tours of Nazareth — takes place December 18-20.

The concerts will be performed in the Salesian Church, with a panoramic view of the entire region, and in the Anglican Church in central Nazareth, known for its lofty ceilings and superb acoustics.

The festival will open with a concert featuring the Galilee Orchestra and the Polyphony Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Guy Feder, performing two Christmas masterpieces, “A Ceremony of Carols” by Benjamin Britten, featuring soloists Rania Ateek and Doreen Sassine, and “Christmas Oratorio” by Camille Saint-Saëns, with soloists Yoav Ayalon, Ron Silberstein, Inbal Brill, Ateek and Sassine.

The festival is one of the highlights of Nazareth’s Polyphony Association and its vision of dissolving barriers between religions and cultures in Israel through musical education and projects.

Polyphony is the first classical music conservatory in Israel’s Arab community, founded by violinist Nabil Abboud Ashkar, whose father once traded the family’s used car for a piano that set Abboud Ashkar on his musical path.

Besides introducing Nazareth’s youth to classical music and performance, the Polyphony conservatory has created youth ensembles of Arab and Jewish teens who play chamber music together and participate in dialogue sessions through music.

The annual Liturgical Festival aims to take that process a step further, offering music fans an opportunity to hear classical works performed in Nazareth during the Christmas season.

“In these days, it is especially important not to forgo raising a voice of harmony and fraternity,” said Abboud Ashkar. “Through a unique musical experience, the Liturgical Festival seeks to strengthen partnership within Israeli society in all its diversity, in the hope of a better year filled with harmony, aesthetics and fellowship.”