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The WSU Kimbrough School of Music will celebrate the season with its annual Holiday Concert, featuring the Madrigal Singers, Treble Choir, Tenor/Bass Choir, Concert Choir and Symphony Orchestra.

The Holiday Concert will include Symphony Orchestra and Choir performing cohesively, director of WSU Madrigal Singers and Concert Choir Lori Wiest said.

“It’s an opportunity to perform together, we like that,” Wiest said, “It’s fun to do different kinds of works together. It’s good for all of us to learn a different repertoire that we don’t often do.”

The first half of the Holiday Concert focuses on the choral works without the symphony orchestra. This will feature classic Christmas music and carols, Wiest said.

“There’s something about this season in each one of those works,” Wiest said.

One of the pieces the Madrigal Choir will perform, called “Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel,” gives a unique beauty to the life of Christmas time, explained Wiest.

“There is something so haunting about that song,” she said. “It’s so beautiful.”

The piece “See Amid the Winter Snow” that the Concert Choir will perform brings the magical feeling of snow during the Christmas season, Wiest said.

“The arrangement that we are doing is somewhat ethereal,” she said. “It has a beautiful harmony that lingers. You can almost feel the snow falling like it did (on Wednesday).”

The piece is very simple compared to the other pieces which brings beauty in its simplicity and serenity, sophomore Madrigal and Concert Choir student Bogdan Mynka said.

“I get to sing quite a variety of music in Madrigal Choir,” Mynka said. “We sing a lot of music that is pre-1600s, but in this case we’ll be singing a lot of classics that have been reworked a little bit.”

The second half of the concert shifts focus to the traditional Christmas story of Jesus Christ.

“The second half we’re going to do a portion of Messiah, which is a traditional oratorio,” Wiest said. “People are used to hearing this work at this season because a portion of this big, large work is actually about the Christmas story.”

The Messiah portion of the concert features three faculty soloists, including soprano soloist Julie Wieck, mezzo soprano Sheila Converse, and tenor Brian Carter. Accompaniment includes the orchestra, cellist Ruth Boden and harpsichordist Lark Powers.

“It’s important for all students at WSU to see what we are capable of,” Mynka said. “The School of Music is really quite phenomenal and not a lot of people outside the school … (see) how much work and effort goes into all these productions.”

The Holiday Concert will take place from 2 – 4 p.m. on Saturday in the Kimbrough Concert Hall. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for students and seniors, and free for children 12 and under.