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Yesterday
we were far away and long ago on the Murfin
Winter Holiday Music Festival. Today
we go as new and fresh as Christmas
cookies straight from the oven and
just as local. McHenry
County’s own singer/songwriter/diva Cassandra
Vohs-Demann has released a brand new original
Christmas Song on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, and all other major
platforms as well as on her own web site.
For
the first time, we don’t have a video,
for this great holiday music entry, but Cassandra is making a gift of it to all of her friends—and now
that’s you! You can play it for free and
if you want a more permanent copy, you can download
it. Such a deal!
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Cassandra Vohs-Demann.
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Holiday
Wishes is
a love song for Cassandra’s husband Phil
and for Woodstock. First performed last year to a strong response,
she recorded it with friend and associate Billy Seger singing harmony and Graham Butler, a Los Angles
producer originally from Woodstock.
And
it’s not the only Christmas song she released.
Celebrate
Anyway is a rock ballad that
Casandra wrote eight years ago to bring holiday comfort to a cousin who
lost her son to cancer. Together the two
songs make a matching set of stockings
to hang on your mantle.
Cassandra
is a gifted and powerful vocalist who
is comfortable in multiple musical
genres who toured and performed nationally before settling in Woodstock
several years ago where she established herself as a music teacher and vocal
coach while gaining a strong following performing at local venues. She
gives back to the community in many ways.
She
founded the Woodstock Community Choir
in 2015 and continues to lead it with bi-annual concerts at the Woodstock
Opera House and public appearances like the annual Lighting of the Square event.
She also leads two regular monthly events at the Opera House’s Stage Left Café venue—Second Saturday Concert Series
showcasing top local performers and the Original
Open Mic on the fourth Saturdays of the month. And she finds time to have fun with the Ukulele Superheroes.
Professionally
Cassandra continues her teaching and coaching in A
Place to Shine Music,
her home studio and is recording and licensing music for film and television. She was
recognized as the 2019 Entrepreneur of
the Year by the Woodstock Chamber of
Commerce.
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Billy Seger performed with Cassandra this year at Woodstock's annual Lighting of the Square event.
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Her
frequent collaborator Billy Seger is just as much of a community fixture. Billy
Seger first started participating in musical
theatre including productions of Dille’s Follies at the Congregational Unitarian Congregation in
Woodstock, choir, and piano lessons at the age of 8. He performed professionally across the
country, including two national tours,
two international contracts aboard Oceania Cruise Lines, and two Christmas seasons as a backup singer/dancer for country superstar Pam Tillis. Segar
currently is a professional
director/choreographer for various theater
companies including Woodstock High
School and Raue Center for the Arts
in Crystal Lake and teaches at McHenry County College.
Did
I mention and/or brag the this fall
Cassandra became Music Director for
the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist
Congregation, 5603 Bull Valley Road
in McHenry with Billy as accompanist. You can hear them with the Tree of Life Choir in a Holiday Concert at 10:45 am on Sunday, December
22. That performance will also
include original work by the Congregation’s poets, including a scruffy
Old Man.
There
are more opportunities to enjoy Cassandra and Billy’s talents coming up
including the Stage left Second Saturday Holiday Wishes Concert
on December 14 at 8 pm, at the Original Open Mic on December 28, and at the Woodstock
Community Choir’s Winter Concert Shine: Songs of
Empowerment, Growth, and Belonging on Sunday January 26 at 3 pm at the Woodstock Opera House.
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