Hallelujah! The Lake Charles Messiah Chorus and Orchestra is ready to usher in the true spirit of the season once again.

George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” will be presented at 3 p.m. Sunday in the F.G. Bulber Auditorium at McNeese State University. Admission is free.

The Lake Charles Chorus and Orchestra’s performance is the longest running Christmas tradition in Southwest Louisiana. It marks its 83rd year.

Like the poster that promotes the concert shows: “It’s just not Christmas until we hear it.”

For those who never have, go to join others in honoring this tradition, go to broaden an appreciation of the arts, go to feel the heart swell and perhaps cry tears of joy that might be hard to explain, go and be part of something with lasting power.

Who are these people?

The 60-plus vocalists range in ages from 12 to 87, many of whom have sung between 20 to 50 years and use books marked with notes handed down from previous generations. For Robyn Hollie of DeQuincy and her sister, niece, father and first cousin, this “Messiah” performance will be their first.

At a recent rehearsal, absent a few longtime singers, the total years of participation tallied 650.

It’s not necessary to read music or audition. Lake Charles’ Andrew Penfield is the youngest member at 12. The “altone,” his combination word for alto and baritone, can read music. He said he was encouraged by his middle school choir teacher to participate.

Lake Charles’ Eva Bourdier has been singing from the first hallelujah to the last amen for 60 years. She credits the longevity of the production and the lasting power of its members to the leaders of the Lake Charles Messiah Chorus and Orchestra.

Dr. Francis G. Bulber, for whom the historic McNeese auditorium was named, directed the first performance in 1939.

“Dad had recently graduated with his master’s degree,” said Colette Bulber Tanner, Bulber’s daughter. “The state had been divided into five regions with one person in charge of established choirs, bands and orchestras in their region. Dad had ensembles from all our region and McNeese. He joined them together to form the Messiah chorus.”

She has been conducting since 2021.

Caren Gunter has been in the choir for 50 years. She said she loves baroque music, in general, which is characterized by its expressiveness and emotional depth, and Handel’s “Messiah” is a wonderful example. She knows not everyone has the same tastes. That’s not the only reason for the “Messiah”’s lasting power, she said.

Leadership and classical music preferences notwithstanding, Handel’s “Messiah” keeps Christ in Christmas, she said.

Handel was “truly inspired by God,” Gunter said.

“Every word is from the Bible,” Bourdier added.

Charles Jennens gave Handel the Bible verses — what some refer to as the inspired word of God — for what would become the timeless 260-page large-scale musical. Handel had a vision of heaven and God on his throne when composing “Messiah,” Gunter said.

“In this age of working from home, scrolling and deleting, the temporary-ness of words that fly away come to mind,” vocalist and board member Constance Darbonne said. She contrasted these temporal words with words of lasting power, “the sung word of the most read book in the world — the Bible — Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfillment.” That’s Handel’s “Messiah,” she said.

“The inspired work was written in 23 days in 1741, but its lasting power continues today, worldwide,” she said.

The Bulber legacy is not only about the family.

When Bulber started the Messiah Chorus and Orchestra, pastors would cancel evening services because they wanted their congregation to attend the performance, Tanner said.

The experience is representative of a worship service — on steroids. Later the concert time was changed to 3 p.m., making it possible to go to both the concert and evening services, or simply get home before darkness falls.

During Monday’s practice, the last before dress rehearsal, Tanner continued to drop tidbits of the composer’s history.

“When Handel was composing this, he had a lot of debt and was facing debtor’s prison with no chance of debt relief, and the jails were nothing like what we have today,” Tanner said. “It was dehumanizing.”

When it became a success, Handel gave the money earned from “Messiah” to release others from debtor’s prison. He believed, as the Bible teaches, the less fortunate should not be dehumanized because all are created by God.

Tanner is a talented professional who takes God, family, people, music and teaching seriously. Yet, she doesn’t take herself over seriously. She doesn’t mind laughing at herself. Practice is fun. She makes others laugh.

The woman is unabashedly unapologetic about her shoes being kicked off during practice and reminds the choir not to wear heels over 2 inches for Sunday’s performance because it can affect the vocal cords.

She makes fish lips, flails her arms about as if she is drowning, and tells the choir how, where and when to breathe and stops the music when Southern accents stretch a single vowel into “26” syllables.

She stops singers again to describe voices as angelic, likening the sound to a beam of light that suddenly pierces a stained glass window.

She’s not worried about Sunday’s performance. She knows “Messiah” isn’t about her. It is not even about the choir, as talented as they may be.

“She is her father’s daughter,” Darbonne said. “You can feel the enthusiasm, and we hang on her every word and gesture, responding until it’s just right.”

Tanner — because she was asked outright about it — said her father was “spiritual and humble,” and “they don’t make them like that anymore. He was an honorable man.”

He prayed for an hour on his hands and knees before every performance because he felt the work was inspired by God and that he was not worthy of conducting it.

“None of us are,” Tanner said. “That is why the last song is, ‘Worthy is the Lamb.’”