Aitkin Middle School choirs to present Christmas concert

AITKIN -- The four Aitkin Middle School choirs, directed by Kelly Blake and Bryan Johnson, will present their annual concert of Christmas music at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Aitkin High School auditorium.

The seventh-grade girls' choir will start the program with a Christmas song called, "A Christmas Greeting," followed by "Candlelight Song" with piano and violin accompaniment. Jane Wagner, from the Great River Strings Ensemble, will play violin. The last selections will be an arrangement of a French carol called "A Christmas Gloria" and an arrangement of "Frosty the Snowman."

The seventh-grade boys' choir will begin its portion of the program with "Calypso Allelu," followed by Kirby Shaw's arrangement of "The Light Come Down," a Cajun/Caribbean carol, "Santa's a Cool Guy," (because he always knows what every one wants for Christmas), and "The Reindeer Twist."

The eighth-grade girls' choir will perform a song based on a canon by the early American composer William Boyce called "Simply Alleluia." It will feature a flute accompaniment played by Jenny Moe. "Christmas ... In About Three Minutes" includes phrases from 23 different carols. They will perform "The Innkeeper's Carol," which will include a clarinet accompaniment by Rachel Goble, and a humorous selection called "The Twelve Days After Christmas."

The eighth-grade boys' choir will perform "Three Contemporary Latin Settings" by Jerry Estes; a short medley of three familiar carols called "Emmanuel's Birth," in which Levi Morris will have a solo on the second carol; an upbeat Christmas spiritual, "Children Go Where I Send Thee;" and "S.A.N.T.A.," a Christmas song with a disco beat.

Accompanist for the girls' choirs will be Becky Klingelhofer.