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Friday, March 29, 2024

This Sunday, UF’s College of the Arts and the School of Music will be holding the 67th annual “Sounds of the Season” concert with the theme “¡el Festival!” This concert will be held at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The “Sounds of the Season” concert first entered the scene as a beloved tradition in 1949 as a midnight Christmas service held in the University Auditorium (then called the Chapel), where President J. Hillis Miller would deliver a Christmas message to the students.

The concert itself has changed names over the years, officially becoming “Sounds of the Season” in 1989, out of respect for diversity. Additionally, the concert has greatly expanded since its inception, growing too large for the University Auditorium and moving to the Phillips Center, where, still, people are turned away at the door, said William Kesling, director and conductor for the show.

In 2014, “Sounds of the Season” was televised for the first time of WUFT, as it will be this year.

Sponsored by the president’s office, the show is “the president’s season gift to the community,” Kesling said. “(President Fuchs) loves this concert and is in complete support of it.”

Past themes for “Sounds of the Season” include “An American Holiday” (2015) and “Bells of Remembrance” (2014). Each of these themes allowed Kesling to present a story that he described as being “told with scoring and narration.”

Kesling aims to show audiences through music that, “even in the midst of chaos, there is something very special about this time of year.”

This year’s theme, “¡el Festival!,” will tell a story of its own by weaving traditional holiday favorites in with Latin and Hispanic influences.

“This year will be a celebration honoring a major part of our culture nowadays, and a world culture,” Kesling said.

Performances will feature UF’s concert choir, women’s chorale, symphony orchestra, jazz program and the Gainesville master chorale, as well as Ensamble Vocal de Medellín, a professional Colombian choir, the concert’s special guest.

Admission is free, but tickets for the event have sold out. If you have already picked up a ticket, be sure to arrive before 6:45 p.m., as unclaimed seats will open up to the public at that time, Kesling said.

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