Kick off the week before Christmas with a special holiday cantata: "The Glory of Christmas" at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Hutchinson.
It will be performed as part of the church's worship services at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and 8:15 and 10:45 Sunday. Admission is free and refreshments will be served following each performance.
The musical presentation features a choir of 53 voices and an orchestra of 29 instrumentalists.
"We did a small one (cantata) last year with a choir of 30 and an orchestra of 7 to 9," said Brandon Begnaud, director of worship and music at Christ the King. "It's much bigger this year. The majority of the choir is from Christ the King. The orchestra is about 50 percent church members and 50 percent community members. A lot of high school kids are participating. They are so on board and so excited."
Fortunately for Begnaud, recruiting participants was a breeze.
"I said we were going to do it and I filled up the choir," he said. "For the orchestra, I assigned parts to people I knew who played. The Christ the King high schoolers were encouraged to round up their buddies, which they did."
All participants were provided music and a CD of the music so they could learn the music on their own. Group rehearsals are limited with the choir and orchestra coming together for a dress rehearsal on Thursday.
Everyone is working together to create something very special, to create this one experience," Begnaud said. "It's very cool."
The director began thinking about staging a holiday cantata in September. He was attracted to six programs and sought a "second set of eyes" by asking Bonnie Westmiller, church organist, to rank them. She selected "The Glory of Christmas" as No. 1 and he agreed.
"It's well-done," he said. "There are Christmas carols, so the audience can sing along at times."
Since he and his wife, Charlotte, and family moved to Hutchinson in September 2014, Begnaud has become a familiar face on the local music scene. He most recently was the pianist for the Crow River Singers winter concerts. He's also played for Hutchinson Theatre Company productions including "Always ... Patsy Cline" earlier this year.
As worship and music director at Christ the King, he oversees all the music that happens at the church. He also puts all the ingredients together that make up each service. From there, he'll review it with the Revs. Mark Richardson, Stephen Olcott and Brian Nehring.
"We have a wonderful relationship," Begnaud said. "It's great."
At the September meeting is when he presented the idea of a new and bigger Christmas cantata as the worship service.
"They were all for it," Begnaud said.
In fact, the pastors are participating with Richardson and Nehring singing in the choir and Olcott playing drums in the orchestra.
Begnaud is directing the weekend's extravaganza and playing piano.
He started taking lessons when he was age 11, between fifth and sixth grades.
"The first two years, I didn't have a piano," Begnaud said. "I played on the dining room table. My first piano was a 100-year-old upright. It was a free piano we found in the newspaper. I was 16 when I bought a grand piano rather than a car. I took out a loan and my dad co-signed. I still have it."
He intended to become a music teacher, but a part-time job at a church in Red Wing convinced him otherwise.
"I loved church work," he said.
Begnaud studied at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul and Augsburg College in Minneapolis.
This weekend all his skills will come together in "The Glory of Christmas." One of the highlights is a new arrangement of "Joy to the World" he wrote.
"I'm not a composer," Begnaud said. "I do not write my own music."
What he does is re-arrange the work of others, changing it up to give it his own spin.
With the clock ticking down to showtime, Begnaud is excited.
"It's a cool way to kick off that last week before Christmas," he said. "It will be really cool. Please come and invite your neighbors. It's going to be wonderful."
