Free Christmas concert at NIC this weekend

North Idaho College will present its “Sounds of Christmas” concert in Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

The annual concert will feature performances by the NIC Wind Symphony, NIC Cardinal Chorale, and NIC Chamber Singers.

The NIC Choir portion of the program will include Christmas and Holiday classics from Spain and the British Isles. The Chamber Singers will present “Ríu, ríu, chíu” and “A la nanita nana” from the Spanish tradition. The Chorale and Chamber Singers will join forces to present “Carols of the British Isles,” a medley of songs from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales arranged by Mark Hayes. The choirs are directed by Max Mendez and accompanied by Marietta Hardy.

The Wind Symphony will be presenting a few holiday-centered pieces along with some serious wind band literature, Hannaford said. The NIC Wind Symphony will begin its portion of the concert with “Ecstatic Fanfare” by Steven Bryant.

Along with this opening fanfare, the Wind Symphony will perform local composer Tom Tucker’s “Holiday Bell Carol” and John Mackey’s “Sheltering Sky,” which has a familiar folk-like quality, but is newly composed. Wind band literature has a tradition of taking folk melodies and incorporating them into larger works like “English Folk Song Suite,” by Vaughn Williams or “Irish Tune,” from County Derry, which was performed by NIC Wind Symphony at the Gathering of the Bands event held earlier this fall at NIC.

“I’m most excited about presenting ‘A Home Alone Christmas,’ which features music written for the 1992 film ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” Hannaford said. “The music of John Williams always tells a story. This film score really takes you back to Macaulay Culkin being chased by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. We always end the Sounds of Christmas with the Holiday Sing-along arranged by Coeur d’Alene’s own Tom Tucker and, who knows, Santa may show up!”