Denton Mormons host 30th Anniversary of “An Evening of Christmas Joys”

The Denton Texas Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is pleased to invite the public to view the 30^th Anniversary of “An Evening of Christmas Joys” program on Sunday, December 10^th, 2017, 7:30pm, via live stream at www.christmasjoys.org The program is to be held at the Murchison Performing Arts Center on the UNT campus, and has already been sold out.   This 30-year tradition in the LDS church is a celebration of the birth of Christ through music, and has its roots in the “Festival of Carols” program, a popular Denton music tradition which existed from 1981-1992  and featured multiple church choirs, school choirs from Borman, Ginnings, Houston, Lee, Rayzor and Wilson Elementary Schools, Strickland and Calhoun Middle Schools, and Denton High School, as well as the NTSU Brass Choir, the Denton Community Chorus, and the Denton Community Band.  The Festival of Carols program always finished with a mass choir number, and encouraged many audience sing-alongs.

As an homage to the “Festival of Carols” program from which it spawned, this year’s “Evening of Christmas Joys” program hopes to re-create a bit of its community roots by uniting members from the First United Methodist Church, the St. Andrew Presbyterian Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to form a Grand Chorus of over 130 members to sing for the occasion. The Grand Chorus will be accompanied by a small chamber orchestra throughout the program. The Grand Chorus will be conducted by John Priddy, Music Minister from FUMC, and Gideon Burrows, who is a Teaching Fellow and a doctoral candidate in Choral Conducting at UNT.

Additionally, Carol Lynn Mizell (who was also one of the founders of the Festival of Carols program) will conduct FUMC’s Handbell Choir, and there will be a Primary Children’s Chorus and a Young Women’s Chorus singing.  A few outstanding soloists from the UNT College of Music faculty will perform as well, including Dr. Jeffrey Snider (bass), Dr. Jason Bergman (trumpet), Dr. Brian L. Bowman (euphonium), Dr. Steven Harlos (piano), Adjunct Faculty member, Dr. S. Andrew Lloyd (organ) and Jennifer Youngs (soprano), who is a voice faculty member at TWU, and doctoral candidate in Vocal Performance at UNT.  This will be an eclectic evening, musically speaking, and will include a jazz quintet featuring current and former UNT students. Prior to the start of the program, audience members will also be treated to hear from the UNT Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble, directed by Dr. Brian L. Bowman.  There will be three world premieres performed that evening, including two written especially for the occasion:  an arrangement of “Wexford Carol” written by Dr. Newel Kay Brown, a retired member of UNT’s College of Music composition faculty, and “I Wonder As I Wonder,” an arrangement written by Dr. Steven Harlos at the request of the soloist, Dr. Jeffrey Snider.

This program is currently “sold out,” and no tickets remain.  However, the program may be viewed by live streaming at www.christmasjoys.org. In conjunction with this celebration, a donation of canned goods and/or funds will be collected at the door to benefit Our Daily Bread, a local charity that supports the needy in the Denton community. See www.ourdailybreaddenton.org