Valencia College Offers Flurry of Free Concerts for the Holidays, Now thru 12/8

Valencia College's East Campus performing arts students will close the year with an array of concerts between now and the first week of December. The cost gives music lovers even more reason to rejoice-admission is absolutely free.

Nov. 22 - Winter Choral Concert at 7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center

Valencia Singers, the college's concert choir, will perform Christmas carols and secular selections, including highlights from Mozart's famous Requiem Mass. The choir's women's ensemble, along with guest harpist and music faculty member Barbara Browning, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Benjamin Britten's birth with selections from his Ceremony of Carols, a holiday favorite.

Dec. 5 - Holiday Show at 7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Center

Welcome the season with a variety of holiday music, featuring the Symphonic Band, Valencia Orchestra, Valencia Singers and The Contemporary Ensemble. The groups join forces to provide a spectacular concluding set of beloved carols and inspirational holiday standards in some of the most beautiful arrangements ever created for choirs such as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This program will surely put everyone in the holiday spirit!

Dec. 6 & 7 - Fall Opera Workshop at 7:30 p.m., Black Box Theater

Presenting the cast of the new opera, Under the Rainbow, by Alan Gerber, member of Valencia's music faculty. This one-act drama deals with an emotionally distraught mother who is torn between her religious convictions and the love of her son, who is planning his wedding...to another man! The opera explores the lives of one family as it deals with the current topic of gay marriage. The second half features Broadway vignettes from Elegies for Punks, Angels, and Raging Queens and the musicals of Cole Porter, as well as the musical theater favorites of the holiday season-the perenniAl White Christmas and the whimsical Elf.

Dec. 8 - Valencia Ensembles at St. Mark's at 4 p.m., St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, 1021 Palm Springs Drive, Altamonte Springs

Welcome the season with a variety of holiday music and other works, featuring the Valencia Orchestra and the Valencia Singers. The groups join forces to provide a spectacular concluding set of beloved carols and inspirational holiday standards in some of the most beautiful arrangements ever created for choirs such as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This program will surely put everyone in the holiday spirit! A reception with light refreshments follows the program in the social hall.

Unless otherwise listed, all events will take place on Valencia College's East Campus, at 701 N. Econlockhatchee Trail, Orlando, FL 32825. All events are free and open to the public. Contact us at 407-582-2329 or 407-582-2900 for more information, or visit www.valenciacollege.edu/arts.

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