When the AUB Choir and Choral Society held their annual holiday concert on December 16 and 17, 2004, it was standing room only at Assembly Hall, especially on opening night. By 8:00 pm, the hall was filled to capacity by a diverse audience of students, faculty, staff, and friends of the AUB community. In a processional manner, the performers entered through the main door and filed down the aisle to take their places on stage. With the choir members all dressed in black, surrounded by red poinsettia flowers, and seated against the dramatic backdrop of the shining organ pipes, the scene was set for a festive night of music, led by director Paul Meers and accompanied by Ramzi Sabra on organ and piano. The program began with several sacred pieces in Latin from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The second set of songs consisted of three "Cherubic Hymns" from the nineteenth century that used text from the Russian Orthodox Church and were sung in Slavonic, a language related to modern Russian. Then the choir performed a seasonal favorite, the "Ukrainian Bell Carol," in which a symphony of voices mimics the sound of Christmas bells. This was followed by an original piece, titled "The Bells of Christmas," that was adapted especially for the concert by Walid Tayara, an AUB graduate of the School of Engineering, who had been a tenor in the AUB choir during his students years. Soprano soloist Reem Deeb joined the program for two songs, the first in German by Felix Mendelssohn and the second in French by Francis Poulenc. The full choir performed other pieces by Poulenc and Mendelssohn (who also composed the popular Christmas carol "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"). The choir then moved on to several English songs, including "A Wassailing Suite," which consisted of three different wassail songs from different places in England (wassailing being an old English tradition of going from door to door asking for food and drink, while singing and merry-making). The final piece in the program, by Johann Pachelbel, was accompanied by a five-piece brass ensemble from the Lebanese National Orchestra. After that, the audience heartily joined the choir in singing several popular Christmas carols, including the traditional African-American song, "Go Tell It on the Mountain." Following the concert, most of the audience and performers waited outside Assembly Hall for the traditional lighting of the AUB Christmas tree, to the accompaniment of the brass ensemble playing "O, Tannenbaum." The AUB Choir is comprised of students who are taking a one-credit course that meets three times a week and culminates in a combined AUB Choir and Choral Society concert. One new choir member, sophomore biology major Raneem Kayed, described the choir and concert as "a wonderful experience" that many students don't know about. The Choral Society is composed mostly of non-student adults who meet once a week for two hours. The choir and society also perform at other AUB functions, such as the Opening Ceremony, Founders' Day, and Commencement. Scheduled for May is another AUB Choir and Choral Society concert, which will be devoted to "Joseph Haydn and His American Contemporaries" and in which they will be joined by a symphony orchestra. This concert will be presented in coordination with the AUB Center for American Studies and Research.
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