Dec. 14, 2009
Contact:
Elizabeth Klipp, 404-413-1356
University Relations
More than 200 Georgia State University student and faculty musicians performed for the 12th annual Gala Holiday Concert on Dec. 5, as part of a campus-wide celebration of the season.
Presented by the School of Music and the Rialto Center for the Arts, the holiday concert included members of the University Symphony Orchestra, Choruses and Jazz Band, who played traditional holiday favorites as well as music with an international twist.
Conductors Michael Palmer, Gordon Vernick and Jeffery Wall led ensembles and soloists in a musical assortment of works by Duke Ellington, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Janowski, Handel and Holst, as well as a world premiere by Georgia State faculty member Nickitas Demos of Fantasy on Kalanta for Saint Basil.
The performances also featured special guest appearances by members of Atlanta's diverse cultural community. Members of the Cao Ying Dance School performed the Chinese dance, Avalokitesvara, and students from the Charles Drew R. Charter School performed Kakilambe, a dance of healing and harvest from Guinea, West Africa, to instruments of the djembe orchestra.
The program concluded with Sim Shalom, a Hebrew song of peace, Handel's Hallelujah Chorus and an audience sing-along.
