By Chris Langathianos

Chelsea Berry, one of the the New England area’s finest musicians, will be performing in Manchester on December 1st at the Crowell Chapel in the Rosedale Cemetery. This special holiday performance, aptly titled “Holiday’s & Wintertide: An Evening with Chelsea Berry & Friends” will feature the musical talents of Rockport’s, John Rockwell, and the husband and wife duo of Joe Cardoza and Renée Dupuis of Rowley.

The evening’s program, presented by Single Tree Music and The Historic Manchester Trust, will feature holiday songs and some original material guaranteed to resonate with guests in the acoustic brilliance of the Crowell Chapel. The event’s producer, Chris Langathianos, said, “I’ve lived in Manchester for 12 years and hadn’t been into the Crowell Chapel. I decided to take a look and the second I stepped into it, I was blown away by the acoustics and the beauty of the venue itself. I immediately called Chelsea, and said, ‘you have to check this place out!’ From there, the idea for a holiday performance blossomed.”

Chelsea Berry, an Alaska native who moved to the Boston area to attend Berklee College of Music, is a fixture on the live music scene having performed all over the country and often opening for world-class musicians like Chris Isaak, Marshall Crenshaw, Livingston Taylor, and Cheryl Wheeler, to name a few. Last summer, she headlined the Festival by the Sea’s finalé concert in Masconomo Park.

When asked about the holiday performance, Berry said, “The whole holiday music thing is actually a bit of a secret indulgence of mine – it’s an excuse to step outside the box and perform classical music, orchestrate crazy vocal harmonies, and pretend I’m in the elementary school choir again. To me, the time of year itself means family, skiing, reading next to the woodstove, decorating the tree, and Mom’s Christmas morning sticky buns – all happy memories for me.”

With Rockwell and Renée & Joe slated to kickoff the evening’s performance, the audience will almost certainly be treated to some vocal and musical collaboration later in the evening’s program. The audience might expect Dupuis’ throaty, alto harmonies to perfectly compliment Berry’s powerful, smooth vocal leads, Cardoza’s passionately executed guitar skills, and Rockwell’s baritone voice and humorous stage presence to make the evening unforgettable. The four musicians are not strangers to collaborating with each other, so the onstage chemistry will undoubtedly be magical for this one-time performance.

The December 1st concert will take place during Manchester’s Christmas by the Sea weekend and is slated to start at 7pm. Tickets are $20 each, or guests may reserve an entire pew which will accommodate 6 to 8 guests comfortably. Tickets are available at www.attendstar.com or by calling 617-694-6892.

A portion of all ticket sales will go directly to The Historic Manchester Trust to support its programs.

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