A GREAT CHICAGO TRADITION

Celebrating its 33rd annual performance in 2008, the Bank of America Do-It-Yourself Messiah will be held on Sunday, December 21 and Monday, December 22 at the Civic Opera House.

The music of Handel comes to life in Chicago every Christmas with his magnificent Messiah performed by an audience of thousands, featuring world-class soloists and a full orchestra of local amateur musicians.

Al Booth was living and working in England in 1973 when he and his wife attended a Christmas sing-along performance of Messiah at a parish church in Kent. “Walking out of that church I felt a kind of hopefulness and camaraderie I had seldom witnessed. And I vowed that when I returned to the States, I would try to bring the people of Chicago the same kind of experience.” Through the generosity of LaSalle Bank, he realized that dream, and since the Do-it-Yourself Messiah in 1976, we have all benefited from his vision. Though Al passed away in 2007, his dream lives on in these performances, now made possible through the generosity of Bank of America.

When Messiah was premiered in Dublin in April 1742, the crowd was expected to be so large that the ladies were asked to attend sans hoops in their skirts and gentlemen sans swords. We expect the same consideration from the large audiences at this year’s performance of this great Chicago holiday tradition.