Nothing But Treble (NBT), Elgin’s premier women’s choral ensemble, will celebrate the holiday season with a concert with music from a variety of times and places at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren, 783 W. Highland Avenue, Elgin. Admission will be a freewill offering.
The program will present works as diverse as a Nigerian carol, a 13th-Century French carol, an a capella setting of a Trinidadian carol, and an American hymn tune set in bluegrass style. The audience will be treated to traditional holiday fare as well as a novel Pentatonix arrangement of “Up on the Rooftop” and a piece based on a Finnish reindeer call.
Choral music enthusiasts will recognize composers Z. Randall Stroope, Ola Gjeilo, Dan Forrest, Shawn Kirchner, and Stephen Hatfield among those represented in the evening’s concert.
Through the generosity of an Elgin Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant, NBT will welcome the collaboration of numerous instrumentalists, including accomplished youth musicians from the Larkin High School Visual and Performing Arts Academy and the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Maud Powell String Quartet.
NBT’s founding artistic director, Rosalind Zager, is relocating geographically. The ensemble is accepting applications for an interim conductor, beginning in January 2020. Qualified applicants may send their resumes to Debby Walters at jndawalters@sbcglobal.net. New singers are invited to join in January. NBT rehearses at the Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren Monday evenings, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m..
— Nothing But Treble