Sounds of Christmas ring at NIC

They'll wish you a "Merry Christmas" at North Idaho College with the return of the music department's annual Christmas concert. Featuring performances from the NIC Wind Symphony, NIC Cardinal Chorale, NIC Chamber Singers and a duet from NIC piano students, the sounds of Christmas will ring out this weekend.

“The singers of the NIC Choirs are always excited to showcase the best in holiday selections, and this year is no exception” Max Mendez, director of choirs, said.

The performance will be at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday in Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center on NIC’s main campus in Coeur d’Alene.

This year the choirs will perform Christmas classics including “Sleigh Ride,” “Feliz Navidad” and “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella,” in addition to many lesser-known songs and arrangements.

“Creating a program with a diversity of traditions is a way for our audience to experience Christmas through a different, yet beautiful lens,” Mendez said. “Our hope is that the texts and sounds of this year’s program will surely put the audience in the Christmas spirit.”

Settings of Latin texts, “Enatus Est Emmanuel/Born is Emmanuel” and “O Magnum Mysterium/O Great Mystery” will also be performed.

The NIC Wind Symphony will perform holiday-inspired music with a twist including “Brazilian Bell Carol” arranged by Robert W. Smith, and Symphonic Highlights from Disney’s “Frozen.”

Director of Bands Bryan Hannaford will conduct the symphony on tunes from “Deck the Halls,” “The Nutcracker Suite Finale” and more.

“We got some really neat holiday inspired music to perform,” Hannaford said. “The group is really excited to perform ‘Frozen.’”

Piano students Kailey Martinelli and Hailey Levasseur will also add to the Christmas-themed performances with duet excerpts from “The Nutcracker.”