On Dec. 10 and 11, the Whitworth Choirs held their annual Christmas Festival Concert at the FOX Theater in downtown Spokane. At this concert, titled “Nowell, Sing We” the Whitworth Choir, Forest Treble Choir and Ponderosa Tenor Bass Choir perform. The performances featured accompaniment by organ, string, brass and percussion.

In an effort to unite the audience with the choir, the audience joined the choir in singing familiar and beloved Christmas carols, such as “Hark! The Herald Angel Sings,” “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “The First Noel.”

Assistant Director of Choral Studies and Director of the Ponderosa Tenor Bass Choir, Joshua Chism, explained the meaning of the concert’s title. “Nowell means Christmas. The celebration of Christ’s birth,” he said. 

He added, “Secondly, we sing! Our voices are raised in exuberant praise—a powerful medium of artistic and spiritual outpouring,” he said. “Lastly, ‘we’ represents our togetherness, our sense of community.”  

According to Chism, “Preparations for this important event take all semester, and our choirs work systematically towards it from the beginning.”  

This weekend, students saw the culmination of a semester’s worth of work. Endless hours of rehearsal, sight-reading and sectionals have now paid off in a glorious celebration of the Christmas season to come.

Whitworth prides itself on the Christmas Festival Concert. In fact, as Chism said, it is “a staple for this university and the community.” By bringing the community around the occasion and activity of singing, the Whitworth Choirs delivered a memorable performance, while following the theme of their concert.