Elmhurst College Choir Gets National Exposure in "A Christmas Carol: The Concert"

Source: Elmhurst College

Members of the Elmhurst College Concert Choir will perform in A Christmas Carol: The Concert, a nationally televised PBS-WTTW holiday special that marks the first time the Charles Dickens classic has been adapted as a live orchestral concert with a choir and soloists, and performed for audiences in a concert setting.

The television special will air several times in December, including on Christmas Eve night.

With a score by Emmy-nominated composer Bob Christianson and lyrics by Broadway's Alisa Hauser, A Christmas Carol: The Concert includes musical styles that range from classical to Broadway to blues and gospel.

The production’s 40-person choir includes 32 Elmhurst College Concert Choir students, who rehearsed for months to learn more than 300 pages of music for the concert. The Concert Choir is an auditioned group of Elmhurst students that has toured throughout the United States and appeared in a variety of professional settings, including with the Chicago Sinfonietta at Orchestra Hall and in a performance of Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings Symphony at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

The group was invited to perform on A Christmas Carol: The Concert because the production needed a choir that could sing a broad range of styles. The high caliber of Elmhurst’s choral students and the college’s proximity to Chicago have made the choir “the go-to for professional productions,” Concert Choir Director Susan Moninger said. 

“A Christmas Carol is really giving us national exposure," she said.

A Christmas Carol: The Concert will air on WTTW-TV Channel 11 at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 19; at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 21; and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 24. For more information, visit www.wttw.com/christmascarol.

The concert DVD can be purchased for $20 from the Elmhurst College Department of Music. Call (630) 617-3515.