KU Collegium Musicum presents holiday concert

The Kansas University Collegium Musicum will present its annual holiday concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Bales Organ Recital Hall.

Collegium Musicum specializes in music from before 1750. The annual holiday concert includes music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods.

The Vocal Collegium Musicum, directed by John Paul Johnson, includes 20 singers. The Instrumental Collegium Musicum, directed by Paul Laird, includes 10 musicians who play recorders, violas, baroque violin, baroque cello and harpsichord.

The concert will include works by J.S. Bach, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Andreas Hammerschmidt, Michael Praetorius, Michael East, William Brade and other composers.

The free holiday concert is one of two during the year for which the instrumental and vocal Collegiums join forces. The groups will combine for two numbers: Charpentier’s cantata “Song of the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” which was written for Christmas Eve in 17th-century Paris; and Hammerschmidt’s “O ihr lieben Hirten,” a finale that reflects the joy of the season.

Community Theatre adds extra Christmas show

To answer a high demand for tickets, Lawrence Community Theatre has added another performance of “The Christmas Schooner.”

The extra show will be at 8 p.m. Saturday at the theatre, 1501 N.H. Tickets are available by calling 843-SHOW or visiting www.theatre.lawrence.com.

The musical tells the true story of a group of German immigrants who brave the dangerous winter waters of Lake Michigan to deliver Christmas trees to people in Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire. They are met at the docks with great enthusiasm by fellow German settlers who long to continue the tradition of Tannenbaum.

The voyages become an annual occurrence until tragedy strikes and makes the schooner captain’s wife realize the true importance of her husband’s mission: to honor our ancestors, remember our histories and celebrate life.