GREAT FALLS- The holiday season is in full swing and the Great Falls Symphony is exemplifying the Christmas spirit with their upcoming concert, “Voices of Christmas.”
Grant Harville is in his second year as the music director and conductor of the Great Falls Symphony, which is celebrating 60 years.
The symphony performs six concerts every year in addition to special events. In celebration of its anniversary, each concert harkens back to a different decade.
“Voices of Christmas” is reminiscent of the symphony’s third decade where local schools joined the symphony for the holiday program.
On December 2, Great Falls College MSU’s chorus will join the Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Choir in performing classic works such as Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria” and Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3” as well as modern favorites including “Sleigh Ride.”
“You don’t get to do that without a lot of people in the community supporting what we do and finding it valuable and much of this year is about celebrating that,” Harville said.
“Voices of Christmas” brings 250 musicians together to help usher in the Christmas season. The holiday concert is one of the community’s most popular.
“December is an extremely beautiful and stressful month with the weather, with the travel, with all of those celebrations that we plan,” Harville said. “I think the service that this concert provides is this space of two hours where we’ll take care of your celebration for a couple of hours. Your job is to come, to listen, to let all of that kind of bombardment sort of fall away.”
A Christmas sing-along accompanies the concert and so audience members are advised to bring their best vocals.
“Voices of Christmas” is Sunday, December 2, at 3 p.m. at the Mansfield Center. Click here to purchase tickets.
-Natalie McAlpine reporting for MTN
