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The Olney Central College Community Choir will present its annual Christmas Concert at 7 p.m. on Dec. 12 in the Dr. John D. Stull Performing Arts Center. Director of Choral Activities Dr. Andrew Pittman said this year’s event will feature a variety of selections which embrace the spirit of the yuletide season.
Among those are African American spirituals: Ain’-a That Good News arranged by composer, performer and music educator William Dawson, a student and former professor at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and Ain’t Got Time to Die by Hall Johnson, a well-known composer and arranger of African American spiritual music.
The choir, comprised of both local musicians and OCC students, also will perform Pilgrim’s Hymn from Grammy Award-winning composer Stephen Paulus’ one-act opera, The Three Hermits and Daniel Gawthrop’s Sing Me to Heaven. One of the most performed and recorded choral works in modern history Pittman describes Gawthrop’s piece as “very beautiful.”
The audience also will be captivated by the poignant Once Upon a December, featured in the 1997 American animated film and later the Broadway musical Anastasia.
For those wishing to leave the hustle and bustle of the holiday season behind, the choir will perform Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra.
“We are performing some music you don’t traditionally hear at Christmastime, but these are really good pieces that we feel everyone will enjoy,” Pittman said. “Our students have enjoyed them, and it’s been a really good experience for them.”
The holiday celebration continues with a jazzy rendition of It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, and a mixed meter arrangement of the Twelve Days of Christmas, which adds an energetic calypso twist to the familiar 16th-century carol. The choir also will perform the classic Thurl Ravenscroft tune You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.
The evening of special music will feature soloists Kylie Rauch performing Pie Jesu and Keegan Tucker singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas from the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Jessica and Diana McDonald will present Santa, Can’t You Hear Me and Tucker will join Jessica McDonald for the 1940s classic Baby It’s Cold Outside.
Following a long-standing tradition, the concert will conclude with a Christmas carol sing-along of the hymns Silent Night and Joy to the World. Admission for the concert is free. Donations will be accepted to support the OCC Music Department.
