After an impressive 23-year run as a musical staple at Woodstock’s annual Wassail Weekend, the a cappella group “The Ten” will be calling it a wrap, so to speak. Their final Wassail performance will take place during the heart of the weekend celebration, on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 3 p.m., at the First Congregational Church in Woodstock — the same venue where the group has performed over the past couple of decades.
Woodstock native Townsend Belisle told the Standard that he joined The Ten — a subgroup of the New York City Glee Club, a conglomerate of a cappella groups in the Northeast — in 1996. “It was just a great outlet. The chorus sings at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and we all wear fancy tuxedos and that kind of fun stuff. And The Ten was the best of the best of that chorus, and I was the baby in the group when I got in,” he said. The Ten is named for its first ten members — three quartets with two overlapping members, forming a group of ten — which came together in 1979. The group currently has 18 members, but has kept its original name.
Belisle’s mother, Sherry Belisle, directed a Revere handbell choir in Woodstock, which was a Wassail Weekend staple from the early 1980s until about 2000, when the group folded, according to Townsend. “So when that kind of chapter ended — where this handbell concert took place, right off The Green in the courthouse — there was kind of a missing holiday element, and missing musical element, as part of Wassail,” he said. “I happened to know some of the people on the committee way back then, and they said, ‘Do you have something?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, you know what? I could bring some of my fellow singers north and fill this musical void.’” And that’s how The Ten first came to Woodstock.
That gusto for The Ten has lasted over two decades and should be on full display at this year’s Wassail Weekend. The current group has around 20 members, according to Belisle, and some alumni will be joining the farewell show.
While some may find The Ten’s departure from Wassail Weekend after this final performance somewhat bittersweet, the singers feel they will leave behind a trove of warm memories and will always be part of the history of the event. “The thought is, [23 years is] a long time, and a nice legacy as part of Wassail,” said Belisle. “So hopefully Woodstock remembers not just the music, but this fellowship [and] camaraderie that came [about] as part of this. This final performance isn’t really a goodbye — it’s more of a thank you to the town that welcomed us year after year with open arms.”
For more on this, please see our Dec. 10 edition of the Vermont Standard.
