Christmas favorites including sing-alongs in concert at St. Scholastica's Mitchell Auditorium

DULUTH, MN - The College of St. Scholastica Music Department will celebrate the  season with a Christmas Concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, in the Mitchell Auditorium on campus. Admission is $5 and the public is invited to attend. 

Music department ensembles including band, choirs, string orchestra and steel band, will play in this annual holiday gala. The various ensembles will join together and end the concert with "Christmas Variations," by Tyler Kaiser, adjunct instructor of music. 

Audience sing-along Christmas carols will be featured. 

The Jazz Band, conducted by Marianne Connelly, assistant professor of music, will open the concert with a medley of big band Christmas tunes "especially appealing to the youngsters in the audience," noted Connelly. 

The Concert Band, also conducted by Connelly, will perform "And the Mountains Echoed: Gloria!" by Robert Longfield. "It opens with a brilliant brass fanfare and then quotes 'Angels We Have Heard On High' in a grand and glorious celebration of the birth of Jesus," noted Connelly. 

The String Orchestra, under the direction of Penny Schwarze, professor of music, will play a "Baroque Christmas Concerto" by Francesco Manfredini. 

The Saints Steel Band is performing a unique 'bomb' version of "Greensleeves," notes Jeremy Craycraft, assistant professor of music. "A bomb version is when a tune is performed in Calypso fashion," said Craycraft. 

For more information, visit spotlight.css.edu or call (218) 723-7000. Spotlight@css.edu is St. Scholastica's one-stop shop for arts and lectures information and tickets.

The College of St. Scholastica is regularly recognized as one of the finest colleges in the Midwest. The 2013 "America's Best Colleges" survey by U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks St. Scholastica in the top tier of Midwestern universities. The Washington Post has rated St. Scholastica as one of the nation's 100 "hidden gems" among U.S. colleges and universities.