Public Invited To CWU Holiday Concert

December 7, 2004

Contact: Mary Varner (509-963-1216/fax 509-963-1239/e-mail: varnerm@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - As part of its Second Sunday Series, Central Washington University music faculty will present the department's holiday concert on Sunday, Dec. 12, at 4 p.m. The performance will be held in the music education facility concert hall.

It will feature selected arias from Handel's "Messiah," sung by Christopher Aspaas, Vijay Singh, Diane Thueson-Reich and Linda Marra, with Barbara Pickett at the piano.

Hal and Gay Ott will perform their own arranged holiday medley and individual solos. Carrie and John Michel will perform arrangements of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and "Ave Maria," by Bach and Charles Gounod.

John Pickett will accompany Reich and Aspaas on two songs Pickett wrote for the holiday season, including the premiere of his "Song from 'A Tribute to the Angels.'" The work is based on a 1945 poem by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle).

A holiday choir, consisting of faculty members and students from the CWU chamber choir, will perform selections from Benjamin Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols," with Maren Acosta at the harp.

To round out the program, Peter Gries, CWU music department chair, will recite his rendition of "T'was the Night Before Christmas" and the audience will be invited to join the performers in singing Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus.

While the program is free and open to the public, donations of $5 for music scholarships will be accepted.

For more information, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-1216, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.