Turtle Creek Chorale’s Christmas concert to play in Fort Worth

by Arnold Wayne Jones of Dallas Voice

Probably the first lesson Jonathan Palant learned last year when he became the artistic director of the Turtle Creek Chorale was: Don’t mess with Christmas.

When he began working on the chorale’s new holiday show, Hottest Holidays Ahead!, he fully intended to keep the standard chorale carols “Peace, Peace” and “Silent Night” in the line-up — he just wanted to reverse the order.

Bad idea.

“There was a revolt,” Palant says with a laugh. “Certain things you just can’t touch. Try serving Thanksgiving dinner without a turkey. You can put ham on the table, too, but God help me if I ever try to change that again.”

Palant has kept with tradition in many ways: Santa Claus (played by Charles Hodnet) returns for an astonishing 22nd year, and there will be the usual cheeky humor that mixes the sacred with the profane (although, Palant insists, in a very family-friendly way — “there’s nothing sexual,” he says).

The theme, in fact, revolves around a very modern idea: that global warming has melted the North Pole, forcing Santa has to relocate his workshop — and triggering many cities to try to lure him to their burg like a sports franchise looking for a move.

“This concert is in keeping with what chorale concerts looked like six, seven, eight years ago, from what I’ve heard,” says Palant.

But there will be a few changes — including one major addition: For the first time since 1995, the Turtle Creek Chorale will cross the Trinity to perform a full-scale concert in Fort Worth.

“Fort Worth had a gay men’s chorus but it folded,” Palant notes, calling the choral scene there “an untapped market. The gay community in Fort Worth is alive, and we hope to attract some singers from there. We also want to spread our wings and fly a little bit.”

The chorale has been flying well for the past few months, since returning from the GALA Choruses festival in Florida this summer.

“Since we got back from GALA, we’ve been a happy choir,” Palant says, adding that he expects the stages at the Meyerson and Landreth Auditorium to be 190 singers strong.

“We added 41 new members this year, and more than half are in their 30s and younger. And 12 are Hispanic — we didn’t have 12 Hispanic members in all last year,” he says of the chorale’s growth.

And Palant continues his policy of engaging other artists in the community. The Dallas performances will all feature the Women’s Chorus of Dallas, while the Fort Worth show features the Singing Girls of Texas. And both venues will host Dallas PUMP!, the queer youth chorus Palant introduced earlier this year.

But most of all, it will be about celebrating the holiday season, with songs like “Christmas in Killarney” and “Joy to the World” and “Jingle Bells.” The latter, though, will be the Barbra Streisand version Palant notes.

It is, after all, a gay men’s chorale.