Choir performance to bring holiday joy

A free concert featuring holiday music sung by 165 college students is scheduled for Monday in the Haugh Performing Arts Center.

"The Light of Christmas" features vocal music students representing various levels of musical skill at 7 p.m. on Dec. 12.

"At least 100 of the 165 students have never performed on stage before," said Professor Martin Green, who is conducting the performance.

The music department has brought together four vocal classes at multiple levels for the first time.

"The state required more lab hours for the voice classes. They can't do that by themselves, so we decided to put them into groups and have each of them sing in a choir."

"They also are learning to read sheet music and sing harmony parts. Many of them haven't sung harmony before," Green said. "We get a bigger and bigger audience every year."

Unlike other choir performances that Citrus College had in the past, this group is going to sing traditional Christmas carols as well as other experimental compositions by adding jazz components to the entire performance.

Green has modified and tweaked several of the traditional melodies. "When they hear it, they think ‘Wow! It's interesting' because the songs sound so nice and fresh," Soprano Lizette Paniagua said. Paniagua, a student in the intermediate vocal class, has one year of experience singing at Citrus.

"It's wonderful, because, of course, it is free," she said. "I love all of the voices and the process of singing with students from other classes," Paniagua said.

Eddie Murillo, a student soloist, said he is honored to sing a solo in a 1,400 seat auditorium.

"I'm excited about it because it's my first college solo," Murillo said. "But I'm scared, too. It's not like high school where it is a small audience. This is a huge stage and huge audience."

In addition to the 10 students chosen to be soloists, two professional soloists, Ashley Green and Sergio Vellatti, join the concert as special guest performers.

Admission to "The Light of Christmas" is free. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. on  Dec. 12. More information is available at (626) 914-8580.