Sunday, December 14, 2025, 4 PM

Street and Davis Performance Hall, Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre

This performance will last approximately 75 minutes with no intermission.*

*Run times listed here are based on information provided at this time and are subject to change.

Category A $65 | Category B $45 | Category C $25
$10 students with ID and youth 18 and under

15%-25% subscription discounts available

Subscriptions on sale Thursday, June 12, 10 AM

Dwight Bigler, conductor

The New River Valley’s own Blacksburg Master Chorale is joined by a professional orchestra and soloists to present one of the most iconic works of the holiday season, Handel’s Messiah. 

Experience the power, beauty, and grandeur of this beloved oratorio, featuring the sound of more than 80 singers filling the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre for the glorious and resounding Hallelujah Chorus. Voices soar in celebration of faith, hope, and joy, with the radiant sound of one of the greatest choral works ever composed. 

Whether you’re a devoted fan or experiencing Messiah for the first time, this performance will uplift your spirit and usher in the holiday season with majesty and grace.

A German Baroque composer, George Frideric Handel began writing oratorios — operas about sacred subjects that are presented in concert instead of acted on the stage — after his opera season was cancelled because of a lack of subscribers. He wrote 22 oratorios in all, composing Messiah in 24 days in 1741. The work gained popularity throughout the 1750s and, after Handel’s death, was performed all over the world with increasing adaptations and re-orchestrations based on the musical taste of the time.

The Blacksburg Master Chorale is a diverse community organization based in Blacksburg that welcomes singers 18 and over to perform contemporary and classical pieces (and the occasional commissioned piece or local composition) and participate in the local arts community. The ensemble was established in 1987 and consistently has 80-100 active singer members. Under the baton of Music Director Dwight Bigler, the ensemble performs three to four major concerts per year in venues across the New River Valley.

Blacksburg Master Chorale performs in a church, sweeping wooden arches trailing up the walls to the ceiling. A headshot of Dwight Bigler, the conductor of the Blacksburg Master Chorale. Bigler is a middle aged white man with a bald head and closely trimmed greying blonde beard. He wears a tuxedo. Blacksburg Master Chorale performs in a church, the photo taken from the back between the pews as people watch.

Blacksburg Master Chorale previously performed at the center in 2015 and 2019, as well as with Opera Roanoke in 2023.