Christmas at Belmont is coming to a television screen near you, and Nashville audiences will have two opportunities to see the concert that has become an annual and much-anticipated tradition at Belmont University.
Each year, student musicians and singers from the university’s renowned School of Music, offer a visual and aural feast of holiday music, and this year Nashville Public television will broadcast an hour-long concert special of the concert hosted by Nashville musical icon Brenda Lee and taped live at Belmont’s Massey Performance Hall. In Nashville, WNPT (Comcast channel 8) will broadcast the concert at 7 p.m., Dec. 23. The concert will also be broadcast nationwide on Public Broadcasting Service stations on Christmas night, funded by a grant from the Beaman Foundation. Check local TV listings for time and channel.
Christmas at Belmont features performances that range from full orchestra and chorus to jazz, percussion, string quartet, bluegrass and musical theater ensembles, performed “in the round,” with musicians and singers as likely to be placed in the balconies and in the aisles as on stage.
The Belmont School of Music is well known for its chorale contingents, some of which have become prominent in music festivals world wide, and Christmas at Belmont also features the Nashville Children’s Chorus, which recently recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. The television broadcast also features brief video tours of the palatial and historic Belmont Mansion, the university’s colorful Ocean Way recording studios inside a converted 1850’s church, and campus locales.
Belmont University is a prestigious degree granting institution that specializes in the entertainment arts. Among its well known graduates from yesterday are Mary Martin and Sarah Cannon (Minnie Pearl), and from today, Trisha Yearwood and Brad Paisley. Artists from all over the world come to its Ocean Way studios to record with Nashville’s highly regarded sidemen musicians.
More Photos from Christmas at Belmont:(Click to open and download)
Christmas at Belmont 1
Christmas at Belmont 2
Christmas at Belmont 3
Christmas at Belmont 4
Nashville Children’s Chorus
Brenda Lee
