‘Guitarras de Navidad’ Coming Dec. 1 at TAMIU

The sounds of the season strummed by guitar strings will once again fill the Texas A&M International University Center for the Fine and Performing Arts (CFPA) Recital Hall with the 10th Annual Guitarras de Navidad Thursday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Sponsored by the TAMIU College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Fine and Performing Arts and co-sponsored by the Women’s City Club, this event is free and open to the public.

The concert program draws from holiday songs and features the TAMIU Classical Guitar Ensemble, directed by Dr. Gilberto D. Soto, professor of music education/guitar.

“Guitarras de Navidad is one of the oldest music concerts sponsored by the department of fine and performing arts and we are very proud to continue this annual musical tradition,” said Dr. Soto.

The Ensemble has added new selections to its repertoire. Among them are special guitar arrangements of the “Concerto a la Rustica” by Antonio Vivaldi, “Dance of the Reed Pipes” and the “Chinese Dance” from the “Nutcracker Suite” by P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Introduction and Fandango” by Luigi Bocherinni, “Tico Tico No Fuba” by Zaquina de Abreau, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Paul Simon, and “Stand By Me,” by Ben E. King.

The ensemble will also present special Spanish arrangements of popular Christmas classics such as “The Little Drummer Boy” and “Greensleeves.

Two special performances by the TAMIU Chamber Singers are also on the program. They will perform “Carol of the Bells,” “Silent Night” and the Guitar Ensemble will join them for a special presentation of Handel’s “Alleluia.”

The TAMIU Chamber Singers are under the direction of Dana Crabtree, TAMIU instructor of music and voice.

Members of the TAMIU Guitar Ensemble include Audrey Esparza, Patricia Gonzalez, Carlos Morales, Leonel Salinas, Ronald Hernandez, Miguel Ruiz, Carlos Limon, José Sanchez, Isai Emmanuel Pruneda, Juan M. Peña, Marisela González, Roberto Coronado, Marissa Treviño, Marco Lopez, Mark Martínez, and Alejandro Peña.

Members of the TAMIU Chamber Singers include Joel Bazan-Gomez, Patricia González, Elizabeth Almazan, Cynthia Garcia, Raquel Gonzalez, Alison Martinez, Mariana Escobedo, Marianne García, Rebecca Vera, Carlos Limon, Ronald Chamberlain, Ricardo Holguin, Alexis Reyes, Daniel Arambula, Roberto Coronado, Osvaldo Ibarra and Alejandro Peña.

The TAMIU Classical Guitar Ensemble is a music performing class comprised of mostly music majors/minors, as well as other instrumentalists who share experience in reading and performing guitar literature for instrumental ensembles.

Registration for Spring 2012 is currently underway at uonline.tamiu.edu

For more information about this class and/or how to join this organization, please contact Dr. Gilberto D. Soto at (956) 326-3046, or email at gsoto@tamiu.edu.

For a list of upcoming arts events, click on tamiu.edu/coas/fpa/coe or for a recorded weekly calendar, please call 326.ARTS (2787).

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