Years past have had more drama: the frostbit alto, the bamboozled bass, the harried music director. This yuletide, however, the Evergreenpoint Carolers’ annual tour may go off without a hitch come December 14 — and at the time of reporting, there’s a 35% chance of snow.
“Snow in winter? Groundbreaking, truly,” said Zameen Hussy, a caroler.
The Evergreenpoint Carolers began in 2019 and, each December, they’ve serenaded the neighborhood with songs old and new that herald winter, the crèche, and whatever else Kirby Shaw arranges in SATB form. The singers are a sundry group of, for better or for worse, New York Times-subscribing locals who sang a lot in college and now sing a lot in a single day—in this case, on Sunday from 3 PM to whenever it gets too dark to read their sheet music.
“It’s been a chaotic few years,” said first soprano Sahara Gold. “Last year, we couldn’t sing Kamalalala as hoped, a few back that market made me feel more cramped than a can in a sardine — not a sardine in a can, a can in a sardine — but we’ve got a good feeling about this year.”
Hopes are warm as an Advent candle; maybe it’s the nation’s impending bisesquicentennial, or just the fire of anticipation ahead of next week’s Heated Rivalry. (“An incredibly artful work that, like ours, honors winter activity,” noted bass Tim Metzger.) Whatever it is, the baker’s dozen of singers is ready for a rollicking Sunday, and a special opportunity.
“Each year, we try to fix an issue the country creates to murder poor people,” said Macks Perdergrast, an alto who doubles as the donation box decorator. This year, the carolers are aiming their focus on local hunger, raising funds for the Greenpoint Reformed Church Hunger Program, a non-sectarian emergency food program.
Audiences can anticipate seeing the carolers al fresco in a few Greenpoint spots: McCarren Park, along Franklin Street, and indoors if any business will have them. Young singers are welcome to join, and Future Caroler stickers will be fashioned for this year’s festivities. Years past concluded with singing at The Springs, though any other bar would do as the group has been known to sing for its supper.
“What we lack in everything else we make up for in enthusiasm,” Perdergrast said.