Cape church choirs come together for Christmas cantata performance this weekend

“The Light of Christmas” will shine this weekend. The Christmas cantata developed by well-known Cape Girardeau music leader Mike Dumey will see Centenary United Methodist Church and Westminster Presbyterian Church choirs join a small orchestra and several soloists at Centenary Church for a free event this Sunday.

It’s a retelling of the Christmas story, Dumey said — appropriate for the holiday season, but with a twist: “Christ is God’s gift to the world. Now, what are you going to do with it?” Dumey said.

Dumey said many people are guilty of celebrating the holiday and then forgetting about the reason behind it, come January.

“By the time it’s February or March, it’s like December never happened,” Dumey said.

He said he hopes to give audience members a little something to carry with them through the rest of the year.

Susan McClanahan, center, smiles between songs Wednesday during rehearsal for a Christmas cantata at Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau.TYLER GRAEF

Soloists Casie Janet Mills, Gary Gilhaus, Trudy Lee, Eric Scott and Stephen Schott will perform, all under Dumey’s direction.

Many of the performers in this show, Dumey said he’s known for years.

When Schott was a young man, Dumey said, he’d perform at Homecomers in Jackson and other talent competitions.

“I was fully aware of his vocal ability,” Dumey said.

Lee and Scott are both well-known vocalists, Dumey said, and Gilhaus’ father was orchestra director for Cape Girardeau Central High School for decades.

Stringed instruments, timpani drums and more will accompany the singers in telling a powerful story, Dumey said.

Dumey won’t be singing himself, he said, but he did build the cantata himself.

“The narration is scripturally based,” Dumey said, and focuses on what we the people do with the “wonderful gift of light we get every year.”

“So often, we concentrate on the immediate,” Dumey said. “Certainly, by the time the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday comes around, Christmas has been put away.”

The challenge is to bring the heartwarming feelings of Christmas into the ordinary, everyday, rest of the year, Dumey said.

Dumey retired from teaching music at Cape Girardeau public schools in 2016, and from 1982 until a few years ago, held regular dinner theater shows.

Of the vocal artists, Dumey said, “They all bring their strengths to the table with this production. It’ll be a lot of fun to do.”

The Centenary Methodist and Westminster Presbyterian choirs will perform together with a children’s chorus, soloists and a small orchestra at 3 p.m. Sunday at Centenary, 300 N. Ellis St. in Cape Girardeau. This event is free and open to the public.