Busy Week for PCC, ECHS Musicians Gets Started Tuesday

WINTERVILLE—The Pitt Community College Music Department has scheduled three performances for the first week of December to help the community get into the holiday spirit.

Leading off the tripleheader will be the PCC Symphony Orchestra, which will perform its annual holiday program Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. in Greenville’s Jarvis Memorial United Methodist Church.

The performance will feature seasonal music, including Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival” and “The Christmas Song,” which was written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. Also on the program is “Christmas Melodies,” written by PCC music major Dale Cox, who will lead the orchestra during the performance of his arrangement.

The PCC Choral and Pitt County Schools Early College High School (ECHS) Choir will team with the orchestra to perform “Before the Marvel of this Night” by Carl Schalk. And, as part of the orchestra’s season-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Michael Johnson, orchestra director at D.H. Conley High School, will lead the PCC musicians as they perform the first movement of the German composer/pianist’s Symphony #6.

On Dec. 5, the PCC Jazz Band, directed by PCC Music & Drama Coordinator R. Michael Stephenson, and ECHS Band, directed by Miles Huggins, will present their fall concert at Temple Free Will Baptist Church in Winterville.

The program is scheduled to get underway at 7 p.m. and feature a variety of musical styles, from traditional and swing band to pop music, rock and holiday favorites. The PCC Jazz Combo will also perform during the concert.

Rounding out the week of musical entertainment will be a holiday concert performed by PCC’s Elements of Praise Gospel Choir and ECHS’s gospel choir, D’vyne Encounter. The event will take place Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. in the Temple Free Will Baptist Church sanctuary. Traditional holiday gospel music will be presented, including Kirk Franklin’s “Jesus Is the Reason” and “Don’t Take Christ out of Christmas” by Mississippi Mass Choir.

Though all three concerts are open to the public and feature free admission, donations will be accepted to support future PCC Music Department activities.

For additional concert details, contact Stephenson at rstephenson@email.pittcc.edu or (252) 493-7493.

12/02/2019