Multiple University of Idaho choir ensembles will perform together in a holiday concert Saturday evening.
Paul Thompson, director of choral activities, will direct the concert, which features the University Chorus, Treble Choir and the Vandaleers.
The University Chorus — a mixed non-audition choir — will perform various pieces, such as “Puer Natus in Bethlehem” and Peter Eldridge’s “Come Home.”
The Vandaleers’ repertoire includes “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow” and Jan Sweelinck’s “Hodie Christus Natus Est,” a Baroque period chant.
“It’s a whole smattering of some traditional, some not traditional, some ancient, some modern,” Thompson said. “It should be fun.”
The Treble Choir will perform two premiering pieces. They will perform a treble version of “Videntes Stellam Magi” and UI professor of theory and composition Ruby Fulton’s “Blistering Blizzard,” which Thompson said has been the most challenging piece for his students to master.
Thompson looks forward to seeing the culmination of this semester’s hard work.
Paul Thompson | Courtesy
“I’m proud of the work that we’ve done and the communities that we’ve built and the growth that we’ve been able to go through this semester, which I hope will be obvious at the concert,” Thompson said. “Even if we get up and have a rough concert, the important work is already there, the growth has already happened, the community has already been built.”
Thompson hopes that students and community members alike enjoy the evening, saying choir music serves as an interesting way for people to interact and engage with each other and their culture.
“I think that choral music is a unique interface with what it is to be human,” Thompson said. “We want to share that with people.”
The one-hour choir concert will take place 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Haddock Performance Hall of the Lionel Hampton School of Music.
Tickets are available at the door — $5 for adults or $3 for students and senior citizens.