On the day of the Holliston Holiday Stroll, the Diverse Holliston Choir will perform a 45-minute Songs of Hope program at 2 p.m. in the Holliston Public Library, 752 Washington St., performing:

• A Light of Hope - Mark Bur rows

•  Heal the World - Michael Jackson

•  Ha’neirot Ha’lalu (We Light These Lights) - Marcus/Schram

•  Found/Tonight (from Hamilton/Dear Evan Hansen)

•  O-o-h, Child - 5 Stairsteps

•  What a Wonderful World – Bob Thiele/George David Weiss

•  We Wish you Peace - Eagles

•  Candlelight Canon - Andy Beck

“The Holliston Stroll will mark our two-year anniversary,” says choir director, Sara Stalnaker, who created the group because, “I just wanted to do something that represented hope.”

Stalnaker’s close friend, Grammy-winning composer Jesse Montgomery, “wrote a piece for us with a quote about stars and light and hope, and we also did a bunch of other pieces.”

At that point, says Stalnaker, “It felt like we started something, and I wanted to keep going.”

The group did several more events, including a “Love is love” open mic at Holliston Recreation and a Pride event at Blair Square, and they continued with the performance schedule the next year, each time growing the harmonies a little bit. 

“We pretty much started with a two-part harmony, and then we finished the Juneteenth event at Blair Square with our first four-part harmony. It’s been a really sort of special convergence of families and activists, some wonderful people,” says the director, who’s been arranging musical pieces for decades. 

With the choir, Stalnaker’s had to adjust the pieces for the changing voices of some of the younger members. Teaching part time at Woodside Montessori Academy in Millis, she’s hoping to bring some of those young voices to the mix for the Holiday Stroll performance. 

The Diverse Holliston choir has about eight regular members and a variety of occasional members, says Stalnaker, who would love to see the choir grow. If you love to sing, visit the new website, www.diversehollistonchoir.org.

To learn more about Sara Stalnaker (she/her), visit cellomuse.com.