Contact:
Eric Sloss
412-268-5765

For immediate release:
November 22, 2005

Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts and the School of Music Present the Annual Holiday Concert at Noon Friday, December 9

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's College of Fine Arts and School of Music are proud to present the annual Holiday Concert at noon Friday, December 9, in the College of Fine Arts Great Hall. The Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, Concert Choir and Repertory Chorus will perform under the direction of Robert Page. This special holiday event is free and open to the public. The concert will also be broadcast live on WQED-FM 89.3.

"The Holiday Concert is a traditional favorite among the School of Music's many wonderful musical offerings. Robert Page leads a program celebrating the season in selections ranging from the lighthearted to the sublime. The setting of the College of Fine Arts Great Hall is particularly festive but seats are claimed early," said Alan Fletcher, head of the School of Music.

The concert will feature holiday standards such as "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" and "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas." Other selections will include "March of the Toys" from Babes in Toyland by Victor Herbert, Bach's "Cantana 191: Gloria in excelsis Deo," Sweelinck's "Hodie Christus natus est" and Bullard's "Winter Song."

Page is the Paul Mellon Professor of Music and director of choral studies at Carnegie Mellon. Choirs under Page's direction can be heard on 40 discs issued by major recording companies, including Columbia, London, RCA, Telarc and Decca. Page has received eight Grammy nominations and has received Grammy awards for recordings of "Catulli Carmina" and "Carmina Burana," a Grand Prix du Disque for "Porgy and Bess" and a Prix Mondial de Montreux for the world première recording of Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar)."

The 2005-06 academic year represents the centennial anniversary of Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts. In the fall of 1905 the first students matriculated in the School of Fine and Applied Arts at the Carnegie Technical Schools. The College of Fine Arts is a community of nationally and internationally recognized artists and professionals organized into: Architecture, Art, Design, Drama and Music, and their associated centers and programs. The School of Music is one of the nation's most distinguished degree-granting music preparatory programs. For more information about events marking the College of Fine Arts Centennial, visit www.cmu.edu/cfa/centennial. For more information about the College of Fine Arts, visit www.cmu.edu/cfa or contact Eric Sloss at 412-268-5765 or ecs@andrew.cmu.edu. For more information about the Holiday Concert call 412-268-2383.