Ryan ChartrandTo spread the holiday cheer, Cal Poly choir’s much-anticipated annual Christmas celebration will be on campus at 8 p.m. Dec. 1 in Harman Hall of the Christopher Cohan Center.
“A Christmas Celebration” is sold out each year and is popular around San Luis Obispo County. Thomas Davies, a music professor and conductor of the event, said the event has existed longer than his 24 years at Cal Poly.
The event will encompass several sections of Cal Poly’s choirs, including PolyPhonics with about 44 singers, University Singers with about 80, Early Music Ensemble with about 14, the a cappella group Take It SLO and the women’s barbershop quartet Oh Snap.
The University Singers will open with “Kyrie” and “Gloria” from Ariel Ramírez’s “Misa Criolla.” These pieces are based on South American folk music, particularly the rhythms and melodies of Argentina.
PolyPhonics will perform “A Child Is Born” by Leo Nester and “Ding Dong! Merrily On High,” arranged by English composer and conductor David Willcocks.
This year’s concert features several new and exciting pieces, including the world premiere of “Gloria,” written for double choir and organ by Cal Poly composition and music theory professor Meredith Brammeier. This is the fifth consecutive year that Brammeier has composed or arranged a work for “A Christmas Celebration.”
A special organ piece will be played by featured performer Paul Woodring. The show will also have a sing-a-long calling for audience participation, so get those vocal cords ready!
To celebrate the season of Hanukkah, the women of PolyPhonics will be featured in Valerie Shields’ arrangement of “S’vivon” and the entire ensemble will also perform Ron Jeffers’ “Hanukkah Blessings.”
Two other talented performers will take the stage, including PolyPhonics’ Richard Carrick, Davies’ student assistant, and Susan Azaret Davies, a piano player and Thomas Davies’ wife.
“Everyone now is officially ready for the holidays and this is a good way to start,” Davies said.
For such a complex and amazing show, it took the choirs only four weeks to rehearse, but those weeks involved hard work and dedication.
However, just because it’s a production sponsored by the music department doesn’t mean all the participants are music majors. Choir classes are offered for credit and almost every major is present in the choirs. Davies said that at least 80 percent of the singers are not music majors.
This concert is Davies’ favorite of the Cal Poly choir’s season. The entire town supports the production and many parents come to see it.
“It’s the kind of music that gets everyone into the holiday spirit, and it gets all of the students ready for finals,” Davies laughed.