SHOALS SYMPHONY AT UNA PRESENTS ‘CHRISTMAS IN VIENNA’ DEC. 7
November 19, 2008
FLORENCE, Ala. — Mark your calendar for Dec. 7, when one of the most popular musical events of the season will take place: the Shoals Symphony at UNA’s annual Holiday Concert.
This year’s performance, “Christmas in Vienna,” is set for 2 p.m. in Norton Auditorium on the University of North Alabama campus.
Keeping with a recent tradition of inviting choirs to perform with the symphony for the Holiday Concert, this year’s guests are the Florence High School Choir, under the direction of Becky Rockhill, and the UNA combined choirs under the direction of Dr. Ian Loeppky. The UNA combined choirs are the Collegiate Singers, University Choral, Chamber Choir and Vocal Jazz Ensemble, with a total of 90 members.
Viljar Weimann, symphony music director and conductor, said this means more than 120 lovely, youthful voices will be joined together with the 60-member symphony performing holiday classics that will bring a flood of happy memories to everyone attending. “It is a wonderful family-oriented concert," Weimann said.
On the program will be the “Many Moods of Christmas, Suite 3," a medley of Christmas songs arranged by Robert Shaw, one of the most influential choir directors in America. The symphony and choirs will also perform together “The Holly and the Ivy" and “”Donkey Carol," as arranged by English composer John Rutter, who Weimann described as “the most popular and famous composer of Christmas music." NBC’s “Today Show” once referred to Rutter as “”the world’s greatest living composer and conductor of choral music.”
The second half of the concert program will take the audience to Vienna, where the symphony will perform the beloved overture from the operetta “Die Fledermaus’’ (The Bat) by Johann Strauss II. In addition, Strauss’ “Emperor Waltz," “Explosions Polka" and ”some other fun tunes,” will highlight this portion of the program, Weimann said.
Another tradition of the Holiday Concert is a performance by the winner of the UNA Concerto Competition. This year there are two winners: Mika Shingu on piano and Zach Craighorn, a tenor. Weimann said Shingu will perform Robert Schumann’s “Piano Concerto in A-minor," and Gleghorn will sing the classic “O Holy Night."
The concert will end with the annual audience sing-along of a medley of holiday favorites.
“What we have planned should put everybody into the holiday spirit,” Weimann said. “They should come early and get good seats because they won’t want to miss a minute.”
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students. They can be bought in advance online at www.una.edu/shoals-symphony/ or at the Kennedy Douglass Center for the Arts in downtown Florence. Tickets are also available at the door.
The Shoals Symphony at UNA is made up of university and community musicians and performs four concerts a year and hosts competitions for young musicians. The symphony season runs from September through August. Concerts are made possible in part by a grant from the Alabama State Council of the Arts.
Other concerts set for this season include “The Planets," at 2 p.m. March 1 at the Shoals Theater in Florence; and “Symphonic Cabaret: Symphony at the Movies," at 7 p.m. May 2 at the River Heritage Park in Florence.
For more information on the 2008-09 season and where to get season tickets, visit the symphony’s Web site at www.una.edu/shoals-symphony.
