Great Falls Symphony Orchestra & Choir premiere a NEW WORK with Lyrics by Paul Zarzyski at Upcom

The Great Falls Symphony 61st season continues, Sunday, December 8 at 3:00 pm, with Winterscapes, featuring the Symphonic Choir and a new work by Paul Zarzyski and Grant Harville. Make it an annual tradition to bring your entire family to this festive Christmas concert. Arrive early at 2:15 pm to participate in a free Christmas card print making project sponsored by the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. Santa may even make an appearance onstage! For tickets, contact the Mansfield box office at 406-455-8514, or visit ticketing.greatfallsmt.net.

Known for poetry that showcases his love and respect for the land, Paul Zarzyski has composed three poems to be sung by the Symphonic Choir, with music composed by Grant Harville. Zarzyski, the 2005 recipient of the Montana Governor’s Arts Award for Literature, has performed at the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada for the past 30 years, as well as done recitations at the National Book, Folk, and Storytelling Festivals, at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, and the Library of Congress. Featured on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion and CBS’s Sunday Morning, Zarzyski is the author of 12 books and chapbooks.

A carol sing-along and a very special guest conductor for the annual rendition of Sleigh Ride herald the start of the Yuletide Season. David Saslav, a member of our Symphonic Choir, won the unique opportunity to conduct.

Noted for his light music compositions, contemporary English composer Philip Lane’s Three Wassail Dances is themed around the Christmas seasons of Somerset, Yorkshire, and Gloucestershire. The surviving fragments of Felix Mendelssohn’s unfinished oratorio, Christus, is based on the story of the Magi and features a recitative, a chorus There Shall a Star Come out of Jacob, and a male voice trio.

A cinematic tone poem that conveys the thrill of downhill skiing with “orchestral whirring and whooshing,” Slalom, by American composer Carter Penn, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

The grand prize winner for the Great Falls Symphony’s Charitable Trip Raffle will be drawn after intermission at this concert. Be sure to get your raffle tickets to win an all-inclusive trip of a lifetime or $5,000 cash. Find out more by visiting gfsymphony.org/trip.

Single admission tickets for Saturday’s concert are available at the Civic Center Mansfield Box Office at 2 Park Drive South, Great Falls, by phone at 406.455.8514 (open Monday-Friday 11:00 am to 4:30 pm), or online 24-hours at ticketing.greatfallsmt.net. Single tickets are $31-$37 for adults, $5 for students 20 and under, if purchased in advance or $10 at the door. On the day of the concert, the box office in the theater lobby will open at 1:30 pm for ticket sales. For more information, contact the Great Falls Symphony at 406.453.4102 or at gfsymphony.org/winterscapes.

This concert is made possible, in part, by the generous concert sponsorship provided by RBC Wealth Management. The Great Falls Symphony season is sponsored by D | A | Davidson Companies.