Three Maryville College music ensembles – the Orchestra, Concert Choir and Community Chorus – will join forces Dec. 6 in the Clayton Center for the Arts to present Handel’s “Messiah.”
What was once an annual Christmas tradition at Maryville College and in Blount County for more than 50 years, the 2010 performance of the “Messiah” will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre.
It will be the first performance of the English oratorio in the Clayton Center, which can accommodate the 100 vocalists and 70 musicians on the more than 4,000-square-foot Nita Eckles West Stage.
For the first half of the concert, conductor Bill Robinson will direct the Orchestra in Christmas pieces arranged by contemporary American composer Dan Goeller: “He is Born/Away in a Manger,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “The First Noel/Go Tell it on the Mountain,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Once in Royal David’s City,” “Sleeper’s Wake,” “A Christmas Festival of Carols,” “Appalachian Carol,” and “Christmas Fantasy for Orchestra.”
In the second half of the program, MC Community Chorus Director Alan Eleazer will lead the vocalists and musicians in Handel’s “Messiah,” which presents an interpretation of the Christian view of “the anointed one” as Jesus the Christ.
Tickets are $10 for adults; $8 for seniors; and free to MC students, staff and faculty with ID. Admission is also free to students 18 and under. To purchase tickets, visit www.claytonartscenter.com or call the CCA box office at 865.981.8590.
For more information, contact Genevieve Michael, general manager of the Orchestra, at 865.273.8871 or genevieve.michael@maryvillecollege.edu.

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