The Willow Springs Arts Council and the STARS Foundation will sponsor an evening of free Christmas music performed by the Southern Ozarks Community Orchestra and the STARS Foundation on Sunday.
“Bells of Christmas with Handel’s Messiah” will be performed 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, at the Melba Performing Arts Center in Houston.
The first part of the program will feature favorite seasonal selections including “The Bells of Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” and a hand bell choir. “Carol of the Bells/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” will highlight violin soloist Kyleigh Peterson. Music from the “Nutcracker” containing “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” “Waltz of the Flowers,” “March of the Nutcracker,” and “Trepak” will also be performed.
The last part of the program will be Handel’s Messiah and include the orchestra accompanying the 60-member choir. David Johnson and Dylan Ficken are featured soloists on “Angels from the Realms of Glory.”
Conductors for the performances will be Jodie Forbes from the Southern Ozarks Community Orchestra and Rebecca Peterson, director of the STARS Foundation. The full 38-member orchestra consists of musicians from SOCO and the STARS Foundation.