A traditional Christmas vespers program by the Pioneer Valley Brass will return to the North Quabbin region this year.
Sponsored by the First Universalist Parish of North Dana, the program will take place Saturday, Dec. 8, at 5:30 p.m., at First Parish Unitarian of Hubbardston.
The tradition dates back at least 20 years, using a trust fund set up more than 80 years ago. The concert is the 786th in a series of memorial vesper services funded by a trust of the First Universalist Parish of North Dana in the 1930s.
The creation of the Quabbin Reservoir to provide drinking water for the Boston area caused four towns and parts of other communities to be dismantled, and the Swift River was dammed to create the Reservoir we know today. A trust fund started by sisters Mary Hale and Catherine Mason provides funds for musical services at Quabbin area churches and nursing homes to serve as a continuing remembrance of the First Universalist Parish of North Dana, lost to the reservoir.
Other free public programs by the Pioneer Valley Brass were held at the Central Congregational Church of Orange and at the Montague Congregational Church. The final vespers before Christmas will be Sunday, Dec. 15, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Greenfield.
Contact Music Coordinator Maureen Riendeau at 978-413-6867 for information about First Universalist Parish of North Dana, or to schedule a vespers program.