Holiday magic came early this year to the Art Hill.
The Pierce College Choir is hosting the Holiday Concert on Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. The concert will include ensembles, soloists, duets and trios.
Garineh Avakian, an instructor of music, wants to bring the community together at the Holiday Concert to celebrate the season.
“I’ve also gone to local, nearby, assisted living or senior living residences like apartment complexes and invited them to come to our concert,” ,” Avakian said. “I go to local churches or temples and I try to pitch the concert to them, so we can get the community to come on campus.”
Avakian hopes students and community members alike enjoy the concert.
“It’s an upbeat concert, let’s put it that way. It’s all catchy tunes that people usually hear around the holidays,” Avakian said.
Students have been working on the concert the entire semester.
“Students do a lot of work for preparation. We’ve been working on this all semester amongst other things we’ve gone to,” Avakian said.
Avakian will be conducting around 120 students for the concert.
“We have a combination of classical music like ranging from Sebastian Bach all the way to very contemporary pieces. We’re going to be singing acapella. We’re going to be having somewhat of a band, and the very last number on the concert is kid of like a holiday medley where I’m going to invite the audience to sing in with us,” Avakian said.
Aro Caitlin, a music major, is currently taking seven music classes. Caitlin said the concert includes different aspects of the holidays.
“There’s a song about Hanukkah and there’s a few different languages that are going to be represented,” Caitlin said. “There are going to be various styles. We’re going to be singing a piece in German by Bach.”
Caitlin will be performing an original arrangement on guitar.
“I have an original arrangement of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on guitar, so I’ll be playing and singing for that song. That will be an interesting and fun experience,” Caitlin said.
Alexis Treese, a pre-med student, took part in the Holiday Concert last year.
“The Holiday Concert is usually pretty fun, because we sing a lot of different cultural music, and so that’s very interesting,” Treese said.
Jeremiah Reyes, an English major, is part of the music 501 class. Reyes is excited to perform.
“I’m starting to love it as well— great music, really gets into the holiday spirit,” Reyes said.
Avakian tries to make each concert different than the next.
“Every year’s very different from each other. I try not to do the same thing. First of all, this year we have our choir shirts. Everybody will be wearing their choir shirts, they’ll be in jeans with like Christmas hats and you know elf ears. I’m letting them kind of wear whatever they want,” Avakian said.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.brownpapertickets.com or at the door for $10. Avakian recommends purchasing tickets online to avoid delaying the start time of the concert.
