64th annual Christmas Festival marks 21st year for Conductor Michael Bray

Posted November 23, 2016 Print

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- The Thiel College Department of Performing Arts will present its 64th annual Christmas Festival, “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4 in the William A. Passavant Memorial Center.

Professor of Music Michael R. Bray, D.M.A., will conduct performances by the Thiel Choir, the Thiel College Chamber Singers and the Thiel College Handbell Ringers. Now in his 21st year, Bray joined Thiel College in 1996 as the Director of Choral Activities and became the fifth conductor in the history of the choir. His classroom responsibilities include private instruction in voice, world music, music history and conducting.

The Christmas Festival will feature performances by the Thiel College Wind Ensemble—conducted by Director of Bands and Instructor of Music/Performing Arts and Department Chair Andrew Erb—and an organ prelude by Adjunct Professor of Music Kathryn A. Gray. Those in attendance will hear renditions of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” “What Sweeter Music,” “Videntes Stellam,” “See Amid the Winter’s Snow” and “All That Hath Life and Breath Praise Ye the Lord,” among others.

“Each Christmas Festival is the result of hours of rehearsal and set preparation in the Passavant Center,” Bray said. “Faculty and community members who have attended the festival for many years consider it to be the beginning of their Christmas season and celebration. My fondest memories of 21 Christmas festivals are the nights students and I have spent decorating in Passavant, in hopes that Christmas might be just a little brighter and more joyous for those who attend.”

The festival is free and open to the public. A special offering will be held at the event to support the Thiel Choir’s nine-day, seven-concert tour to Maryland, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The tour departs March 3, 2017 and is part of Thiel’s 150th-anniversary celebration.

Since its founding in 1953 by Dr. Marlowe W. Johnson, the Thiel Choir has continued to train women and men in the Lutheran choral tradition. The choir is composed of approximately 40 students from all academic fields. Through the years the Thiel Choir has presented concerts in the midwestern, eastern and southern regions of the United States and Canada and has performed on nine European tours most recently to Sweden, Estonia, Russia and Finland in 2004 and to Austria and northern Italy in 2008. The choir recently completed a tour to Ireland May 9-21, 2016.

For more information, contact Bray at 724-589-2149.