St. Viator offers 'New Joys' at holiday arts festival

Looking for a dose of holiday cheer?

Saint Viator High School has just the ticket: "New Joys," its Winter Arts Festival, which offers a modern celebration of Christmas traditions, filled with art, dance and music.

The annual fine arts festival opens at 2 p.m. Sunday, with an afternoon filled with seasonal carols, modern interpretations of songs by Josh Grobin and the Beatles, as well as international selections, including the Catalan Christmas carol, "Fum, Fum, Fum."

"Our theme this year, New Joys, is really accurate since we are looking at some traditional Christmas elements - in new ways," William Faltinoski, fine arts department chairman, said.

The festival includes performances by Orchesis dancers who will perform lyrical dances to "Let it Be," as recorded by the cast of "Glee," as well as another lyrical number set to the modern classic, "O, Holy Night," by Josh Grobin.

The combined concert and symphonic bands are directed by Vince Genualdi and will perform traditional English carols. They include "The Sussex Mummers Christmas Carol" and "The Night Before Christmas," while the Saint Viator Jazz Band will present its own jazz rendition of the season, with tunes like "Work Song," "Doxy," and "The Chicken."

Kristina Sandrock directs Saint Viator's multiple choral ensembles, including the Trebel, Concert and Symphonic choirs, as well as the Chamber Singers.

Freshmen and sophomore girls make up the new Treble Choir. They will perform "Breath of Heaven," while the Concert Choir will present the old English classic, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and the combined choirs will preform the traditional favorite, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Saint Viator's Chamber Singers will offer up a dose of international flavor, with the historic Spanish carol, "Fum, Fum, Fum."

During intermission, guests may peruse the unique art offerings designed by students in a variety of visual arts classes, including both traditional and digital sections.

"This year every student enrolled in an art class is represented in our display," Faltinoski added. "Part of creating art is having others see it and appreciate it."

For starters, students in the Introduction to Adobe Photoshop class created ornaments for the pyramid trees on display, while those students in Introduction to Visual Art created window ornaments.

Students in iPad Media Arts created a cut paper, stop motion, animation of the classic "The Night Before Christmas" poem, while those in 3-D Art & Design created eye-popping ornaments.

Finally, upperclassmen members of the National Art Honor Society created the tree toppers for the pyramid trees.

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