Music ensembles bring holiday cheer to stage next week

Illinois Valley music lovers are in for a treat next week when all of IVCC’s music ensembles perform in four separate holiday concerts.

The Choir opens the week on Monday, Dec. 4, followed by the Jazz Ensemble on Tuesday, Dec. 5. The Piano & Guitar Student Music Recital will be Wednesday, Dec. 6, followed by the Wind Ensemble concert on Thursday, Dec. 7. All the concerts start at 7 p.m. and take place in the Dr. Mary Margaret Weeg Cultural Centre. Admission to all is free.

Under the direction of Jenilyn Roether, the Choir will perform selections from Vaughan Williams, Faure and Benjamin Britten, as well as musical theater or film, including “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Wonder of Wonders” from “Fiddler on the Roof,” and “Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas.” The poem “In Flanders Fields” will be set to music. Those will be followed by Christmas selections, including “This Little Babe” from Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols,” a Celtic version of “Silent Night,” and “El Decembre,” a Catalan carol. The program will close with a sing-along with the audience of well-known Christmas carols.

Under the direction of Brandon Czubachowski, the Jazz Ensemble will perform holiday favorites, including “Glenn Miller Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” “White Christmas,” “Call Me Claus,” music from James Bond films, and “Auld Lang Syne.”

Five students will be featured in the Piano & Guitar recital. Matt Lijewski will perform a jazz/funk medley on electric bass guitar, accompanied by instructor Kevin Kramer, and Elizabeth Shaw will perform “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, accompanied by Kramer on percussion and Lijewski on bass. Ethan Fox, Courtney Bailey and Allayna Elnicki will perform selections on piano, and piano instructor Brad Fritz and Kramer will also perform.

Under the direction of conductor Phil Whaley, the Wind Ensemble will perform music of William Schuman, Ross Hastings, David Lovrien, Gustav Holst, Danny Elfman and James Barnes. Selections include “Chester Overture,” “Christmas Curtain Raiser,” “Minor Alterations (Christmas Through the Looking Glass),” “A Moorside Suite,” “Selections from The Nightmare Before Christmas,” and “Symphonic Overture.”