UW Department of Music Presents Gala Holiday Concerts Dec. 9-10

The holiday season is filled with special memories recounted through song. These thoughts can be rekindled during the University of Wyoming Department of Music’s gala holiday concerts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 9-10, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall.

Department of Music faculty members Michael Griffith, O’Neil Jones, Brian Murray and Ogechi Ukazu will conduct the many UW choirs, the UW Wind Symphony and the UW Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets are $14 for the public, $10 for senior citizens and $4 for students. A nominal processing fee will be charged for each ticket. To purchase tickets, visit the Performing Arts box office, call (307) 766-6666 or go online at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/uwyo/6984.

UW’s choirs will explore the ideas of nostalgia, hope and promise through familiar seasonal favorites and novel holiday delights.

The Laramie Civic Chorus begins with Roland Carter’s festive arrangement of “Go, Tell It on the Mountain.” The concept of hope continues with 7220 Blues’ performance of Anders Edenroth’s “The World for Christmas.” Bel Canto then offers traditional favorite “Wolcum Yule” from Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols” with harpist Elizabeth Schroeder.

The Happy Jacks celebrate promise through Donny Hathaway’s rhythmic “This Christmas.” Then, the Collegiate Chorale reminisces on the beauty of winter through “In the Bleak Midwinter,” a poem by Christina Rossetti, followed by “Sing We Now of Christmas,” a traditional French carol.

The UW Wind Symphony will open the holiday gala with a musical version of searching for Christmas presents. “Minor Alterations: Christmas Through the Looking Glass” by David Lovrien is a medley of Christmas tunes that has been transposed from major to minor keys, then morphed, layered and transformed into new and fun versions of themselves.

The UW Wind Symphony will feature UW music graduate student and trumpeter Steven Cozzuli, with the UW Wind Symphony Brass Ensemble, on a soulful rendition of the Christmas carol “Silent Night.” The first half of the concert will conclude with John Mackey’s “Aurora Awakes,” a dynamic tribute to the earthly light show visible during the darkest, coldest winter months. The audience will follow the journey of this work from the faintest glow to a brilliant finale of light.

The UW Symphony Orchestra will fill the stage after intermission. The traditional Ukrainian “Carol of the Bells” will be its overture, followed by the world premiere of “The Nativity Bells” by Robert Wendel, which is based on “The Bells” by Renaissance composer William Byrd.

Holiday favorite “Sleigh Ride” is next. Then, the choirs will join the UW Symphony Orchestra to perform Griffith’s own “Little Christmas Child.” He composed the piece in the 1970s for a stage version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in Cleveland.

Murray then will lead the grand finale: Robert Shaw’s “The Many Moods of Christmas,” orchestrated by the great Broadway arranger Robert Russell Bennett. The finale includes “Good Christians All, Rejoice,” “In dulci jubilo,” “Pat-a-Pan” and “Adeste Fideles.”

In keeping with tradition, Laramie’s Punch Williamson will provide a postlude on the Performing Arts Center’s pipe organ.

For more information, email Griffith at symph@uwyo.edu.