Warning! The most popular shows are selling out
By Peter Alexander Dec. 4 at 4:50 p.m.
The CU-Boulder College of Music’s annual “Holiday Festival” has limited tickets still available for the four performances Friday through Sunday (Dec. 6–8 in Macky Auditorium; details below).
The annual holiday extravaganza features orchestras, bands, jazz ensembles and world music groups and individual performers from the School of Music, in addition to faculty and guests. Based on previous years, it is almost a certainty that the performances will sell out by the weekend. If you wish to attend, move fast!
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“Holiday Festival”
Performers from the CU College of Music:
—Chamber Singers, Coreen Duffy, conductor
—Holiday Festival Chorus, Coreen Duffy and Elizabeth Swanson, conductors
—Holiday Festival Orchestra, Gary Lewis and Matthew Dockendorf, conductors
—Trumpet Ensemble, Ryan Gardner conductor
—Holiday Festival Jazz, Brad Goode, conductor
—Holiday Festival Brass, Elias Gillespie conductor
—West African Highlife Ensemble, Maputo Mensah, director
—Andrew Garland, baritone; Daniel Silver, clarinet; and Bobby Pace, carillon
- Program of selected music for the Holidays
7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6 LIMITED TICKETS
1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday 7 LIMITED TICKETS
4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8 LIMITED TICKETS
The “Gentle Nutcracker,” a sensory-friendly, abridged version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet presented by Boulder Ballet and the Longmont Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for individuals with special needs and their families, has limited tickets available for Saturday’s performance in Longmont’s Vance Brand Auditorium (1 p.m. Dec. 7; details below).
The same is true for one performance of the full Nutcracker ballet, Saturday at Vance Brand (4 p.m. Dec. 7). While Sunday’s performance is sold out, a few more tickets are available for Saturday. All performances will be led by the LSO music director Elliot Moore.
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Boulder Ballet with the Longmont Symphony, Elliot Moore, conductor
“Gentle Nutcracker”
1–2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7
Vance Brand Civic Auditorium
The Nutcracker
4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 LIMITED TICKETS
2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8 SOLD OUT
Vance Brand Civic Auditorium
Ars Nova Singers will celebrate the winter solstice with “Light/Shadow,” a program featuring rarely heard seasonal music that welcomes the return of light after winter’s darkness. A series of four concerts in Denver, Boulder and Longmont opens Saturday at the St. Paul Community of Faith in Denver with conductor Tom Morgan (Dec. 7; full concert details below).
Additional performances will be Sunday, Dec. 8 in Longmont; Thursday Dec, 12 at Mountain View Methodist church in Boulder; and Friday, Dec. 13, at First Church in Boulder. All performances are at 7:30 p.m. In addition to the Ars Nova Singers, the performances will feature violist Matthew Dane and flutist Christine Jennings.
Highlights of the program will include the Magnificat by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, featuring the composer’s “tintinnabuli” style. This style, which Pärt introduced in the 1970s, combines a chant-like voice moving in stepwise motion with a “tintinnabular voice” that moves mostly in arpeggios. One of Pärt’s most popular works, the Magnificat is characterized by its gentle lyricism and calm mood.
Also noteworthy on the program is the U.S. premiere of the Vocalise for viola and choir by the Bulgarian composer Emil Tabakov. Known as both a conductor and composer in Bulgaria, Tabakov has written extensively for large ensembles, including 10 symphonies and a Concerto of Orchestra as well as a number of concertos. In that respect, the restrained and meditative Vocalise is exceptional among his works.
Also on the program are pieces by the African-American composer B.E. Boykin, Shira Cion, the American singer/songwriter/actress Sara Bareilles, and arrangements of seasonal music by Morgan.
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“Light/Shadow”
Ars Nova Singers, Tom Morgan, conductor
With Matthew Dane, viola, and Christina Jennings, flute
- Phillipe Verdelot: Beata es Virgo Maria
- Anton Bruckner: Virga Jesse floruit
- Joan Szymko: Illumina le tenebrae
- B. E. Boykin: O magnum mysterium
- Arvo Pärt: Magnificat
- Emil Tabakov: Vocalise for solo voila and choir (U.S. premiere)
- Abbie Betinis: “Be Like the Bird”
- John Rutter: Musica Dei donum
- Mykola Leontovych: “Carol of the Bells”
- Italian Carol: Dormi, dormi (arr. Guy Turner)Israeli song: Ma navu (arr. Shira Cion)
- “The Angels and the Shepherds” (arr. Paulus/Morgan)
- Sara Bareilles/Ingrid Michaelson: “Winter Song” (arr. Morgan)
- Traditional “The Holly and the Ivy” (arr. Morgan)
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7
St. Paul Community of Faith, 1600 Grant St., Denver
7:30 pm. Sunday, Dec. 8
United Church of Christ, 1500 9th Ave., Longmont
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12
Mountain View United Methodist, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder
7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13
First Church, 1421 Spruce St., Boulder
NOTE: Matthew Dane is the correct name of the guest violist for this concert. The original posting had his name correctly in the text by misspelled as “Dance” in the program listing below.
Sharps & Flatirons 
