Coming off back-to-back concerts in Langley and Abbotsford this past weekend, otherTrinity Western University musicians are prepare for their signature Christmas event this coming weekend in Vancouver.
The Christian post secondary institution hosted Fate + Fortune in Langley and Abbotsford last weekend, and now the School of Arts, Media + Culture (SAMC) is preparing to present its popular Christmas at the Chan on Sunday, Dec. 3.
The concert starts at 2:30 p.m. at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts, and typically sells out. But in the week leading up to the event, organizers announced tickets were still available.
This event, entitled Rejoice!, showcases four of TWU’s internationally recognized choirs (that’s 125 voices). They are accompanied by a professional 40-piece orchestra, and they’re all being directed by award-winning conductor Dr. Joel Tranquilla.
The show offer some of the season’s most “enchanting” festive music.
“Our annual Christmas at the Chan Centre concert is a collaborative gift to the wider community from the Chan family, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, and Trinity Western University,” Tranquilla said.
“It is made possible through the generous assistance of the Chan Endowment Fund of the University of British Columbia. Join us to anticipate the coming of Christ with joy and celebration!”
Tickets for this event can be purchased online at tickets.ubc.ca.
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Seasonal favourites are not the only thing TWU musicians are playing heading into the holidays.
Trinity Western’s vocal jazz ensemble and the Mat Kim Combo present Jazz Night on Tuesday, Dec. 5.
Event organizers suggest people escape the winter gloom with an evening of vocal and instrumental jazz.
Modern interpretations by TWU’s vocal jazz ensemble of jazz-age favourites like Blue Skies, It Had to Be You, and Night and Day will be sure to perk up any mood, as will a special jazz arrangement of Michael Bublé’s Haven’t Met You Yet.
The Mat Kim Combo will take the stage with a fun selection of classic bebop and modal jazz pieces by jazz greats Miles Davis, Horace Silver, and Thelonious Monk – among others.
And, a showcase of new pieces by Trinity’s own Joshua Tanuwijaya and Mat Kim will close out the set.
This year’s jazz ensemble and combo represent a number of different communities, both local and international.
Members of the vocal jazz ensemble hail from: Langley, Abbotsford, Coquitlam, and Pitt Meadows, in B.C. along with Alberta, Ontario, Washington State, Jakarta, Tokyo, and Tanjun Bungah in Malaysia.
Members of the combo come from Langley, Burnaby, and Richmond as well as Jakarta.
This jazz session, being held in the instrumental hall at the TWU Music Building, is on Tuesday begins at 7:30 p.m.
The cost is a $5 suggested donation at the door.
Information at music@twu.ca.
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On the stage
TWU’s theatre students are also on stage this week, presenting Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen.
The play speculates on what took place during a series of private meetings between atomic physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr during the Second World War, and the race to build the first atomic bomb.
The play started Nov. 21 and runs until Saturday, Dec. 2, with shows Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7:30p.m., plus an additional matinee on Saturday at 2 p.m., in the Robert N. Thompson Building on the TWU Langley campus.
For tickets and details, people can visit www.twu.ca/theatre or call 604-513-2188.
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Scrooge hits dinner theatre circuit
Speaking of theatre productions, the relative newcomers with Theatre in the Grove are running their final Christmas dinner theatres this weekend.
For the past few weeks, they’ve been performing A Christmas Carol at the Northwest Langley Baptist Church.
If you didn’t catch the show in Langley, it continues back home on their home turf of Maple Ridge. Known on that side of the water as Theatre in the Country, this team of thespians are performing in Whonnock. The show run there from Dec. 7 to 16.
There are options to join them for dinner, or just catch the show.
More info and tickets at 604-259-9737, via email at boxoffice@theatreinthecountry.com, or online at theatreinthecountry.com.
