Christmas Concert Filled With Light
Nov 25, 2014
Music Events
As the campus community prepares to ring in the holiday season, students and faculty in the choirs and orchestra are gearing up for the 88th annual Concordia Christmas Concerts.
The theme for this year’s Christmas Concert is “Arise, Shine, for Your Light Has Come.” Two choral conductors are the concert’s co-artistic directors.
D. Michael Smith, visiting conductor of The Concordia Choir, and Dr. Michael Culloton, conductor of the Chapel Choir, Männerchor and Cantabile, collaborated on this year’s Concordia Christmas tradition.
“Mr. Smith brings such a positive energy to the department,” Culloton says. “It’s been a lot of fun to lean on a partner.”
The theme for the concert provided inspiration for the entire production.
“There’s a lot of that light represented,” Culloton says.
Smith says they want to convey the idea that Christ came to bring light into the world and to show people how to live in that light.
“I think it’s going to be a concert that people will be inspired by,” Culloton says.
The concert includes a performance of Dr. René Clausen’s “Psalm 150,” as well as his arrangement of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Clausen is on sabbatical in 2014-15. In addition, the carol section of the performance pays homage to Dr. Paul J. Christiansen, former conductor of The Concordia Choir, in celebration of the centennial of his birth.
Tickets for the Moorhead concerts can still be purchased.