UW Department of Music to Present Annual Gala Holiday Concerts Dec. 7-8

Experience the beauty and magic of the holiday season Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 7-8, when the University of Wyoming Department of Music presents its annual celebration of seasonal music.

The Gala Holiday Concerts program will feature the UW choirs, Symphony Orchestra and Wind Symphony at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall.

Tickets are $19 for the public, $15 for senior citizens and $9 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.

Conducted by Department of Music faculty members Brian Murray and O’Neil Jones, the UW choirs will celebrate the holiday season with variety.

The concert opens with Victor Johnson’s festive “African Noel,” featuring the combined choirs and percussion. The Laramie Civic Chorus then performs the jubilant “Sussex Carol” and combines with the UW Symphony Orchestra (UWSO) on “Every Valley.”

Through the tuneful “December Lullaby” and the humorous “Seven Feet of Snow,” the Laramie Children’s Chorus celebrates the winter season. Bel Canto shares Sarah Quartel’s setting of Shakespeare’s “Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind” before the Singing Statesmen offer Elaine Hagenberg’s haunting “O Come, Emmanuel.”

With “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” the Happy Jacks reminisces on past Christmases with friends and family. The UW Collegiate Chorale closes the first half of the Gala Holiday Concerts with a heart-wrenching arrangement of “The First Noel,” followed by Coreen Duffy’s rhythmic “Adon Olam.”

Conducted by Department of Music faculty member Michael Griffith, UWSO will contribute Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Greensleeves” (“What Child is This”); the “Toy Symphony” by Haydn; and “Santa at the Symphony.” That piece includes snippets of holiday favorites interspersed with well-disguised bits of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (Mozart), “Nutcracker” (Tchaikovsky), Brahms Symphony No. 1, and ending with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony mixed with “Jingle Bells” and the “1812 Overture.”

The Wind Symphony, during the concert’s second half, comes in with an Ireland-inspired version of “Patapan,” followed by “Christmas Toons,” a musical quiz of favorite holiday cartoons.

The UW choirs and Wind Symphony close the concert by joining forces in Copland's hope-filled “The Promise of Living” and a holiday favorite, “Sleigh Ride.”

UW Department of Theatre and Dance Chair Christie Zimmerman will serve as the gala’s narrator.

Wyoming Jazz Combo 1, conducted by UW Department of Music faculty member Andy Wheelock, will provide pre-show music in the lobby for each performance.

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

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.