Choirs, music groups offer holiday sounds
Catching a holiday concert this year could be as close as your neighborhood school. Spokane Valley students have prepared for the season’s sounds in upcoming band, choir and orchestra performances.
Here is a sampling of some holiday concerts in the Valley, as well as some dates of Valley youth taking their music to downtown venues.
“Solar Energy Choir from Sunrise Elementary will perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Orchard Crest Retirement Community and again at 10 a.m. Dec. 13 at the downtown Federal Building.
“Central Valley High School offers 7 p.m. performances that include a Dec. 12 Holiday Bands Concert with jazz, a Dec. 13 Holiday Orchestra Concert, and a Dec. 14 Holiday Choral Concert. All concerts are in the school’s theater, 821 S. Sullivan Road, and there’s no admission charge.
“The Chanteuse Women’s Choir and Lirico Chamber Singers of University High School, directed by Russell Seaton, will offer two free admission events: a 7:30 p.m. Dec. 11 “Songs of the Advent Season” at St. John’s Cathedral on Spokane’s South Hill and a Dec. 13 “Songs of the Advent Season” at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral, downtown, also at 7:30 p.m.
“University High School also has scheduled a Dec. 14 choir/orchestra holiday musical concert that includes the New Horizons Community Orchestra at 7 p.m. in the school’s theater, 12420 E. 32nd Ave. Admission is free.
“In the East Valley area, the following free concerts are scheduled:
Dec. 11: East Valley High School Choir, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 15711 E. Wellesley Ave.
Dec. 13: Mountain View Middle School Band, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., 6011 N. Chase Road.
Dec. 15: East Valley Middle School Holiday Concert, 8 to 9 a.m., 4920 N. Progress Road.
Dec. 18: EVHS Band Concert with Special Guests – all East Valley elementary band students, 7 to 8:30 p.m., 15711 E. Wellesley Ave.
“Students in the West Valley district plan these special free holiday performances:
Dec. 12: West Valley High School choir/strings concert, a 7 p.m. performance at Centennial Middle School (due to remodeling of WVHS), 915 N. Ella Road.
Dec. 13: “Christmas at the OK Corral” at 6:30 p.m., a musical featuring Seth Woodard students singing and dancing, at Orchard Center, 7519 E Buckeye Road.
Dec. 15 Ness Elementary students caroling 10:20 a.m. at River Park Square.
Dec. 18 WVHS Band concert, 7 p.m. at high school, 8301 E Buckeye Road.
Craft fair today
The Trent Elementary Parent-Teacher Association is hosting an annual holiday craft fair that wraps up today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The craft booths are in the gym of the school, located at 3303 N. Pines Road. There is no admission charge to attend.
Santa’s helpers
Fifth-graders at Chester Elementary filled a little kindness and toys into stockings this week for 65 underprivileged children who will take part in Fantasy Flight, an event at the Spokane International Airport sponsored by United Airlines.
Fantasy Flight gives low-income children from Spokane a chance to experience a night of magical fun, going on an airplane taxied around the airport to a hangar decorated like the North Pole. The kids get to open presents and stockings, eat and have fun activities. A Chester Elementary parent volunteer’s husband works for a company that purchased supplies and stockings, and the fifth-graders got to be “elves” on Monday.
Board member to serve
West Valley School Board Member Jim Williams will serve with the “100 District Leaders for Citizenship and Service-Learning.” His selection was announced by the Education Commission of the States National Center for Learning and Citizenship.
Williams, a longtime West Valley school board member, was chosen from a national pool of candidates, giving Williams an opportunity to join a national cadre of district-level administrators and policymakers advancing the civic mission of American education through policy, practice and infrastructure. The announcement was made by William Cirone, Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Education.