Songs of the Season on Dec. 22 at St. Thomas Episcopal in Bethel

“Songs of the Season,” a free candlelight concert featuring voice students of Phoebe Madden, will make its Bethel debut in historic St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church at 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22. Nineteen current and former students will perform sacred and secular classics, such as ”It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “What Child Is This?” “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Oh, Holy Night,” and “White Christmas.”

The concert will also feature an original piece – “Zoe’s Hanukkah Song” – and will conclude with a sing-along of “The 12 Days of Christmas” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

The concert is “a gift to the community,” explained Madden, who had presented similar December concerts in New Greenwich, Rhode Island, before moving to Redding this year. She has been teaching her Rhode Island students via Internet and in person this fall so that they can join Connecticut students for the concert.

Ten Rhode Island families will make the trip – 2 ½ hours each way – “out of love for their child and out of admiration for this concert,” Madden said. “I am looking forward to sharing Bethel with all of them and having them discover the shops and the charm of it all and most of all this church.”

Concert accompanists will be Bryan Dmuchowski on keyboard and David Schmidt on guitar.

St. Thomas’ is located at 95 Greenwood Avenue, across from Caraluzzi’s Bethel Food Market.