PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, will broadcast Belmont University’s annual Christmas at Belmont concert, making it available to millions of TV viewers across the country. PBS will carry the one-hour concert at 8 p.m., Wednesday, December 22. It will air a second time in the Nashville area on the PBS affiliate WNPT at 9 p.m., Thursday, December 23.
Country recording legend and Nashville icon Brenda Lee hosts the concert, taped live at Belmont’s Massey Performing Arts Center. The production, a joint project of the university and Nashville Public Television, was funded by a grant from the Beaman Foundation.
Christmas at Belmont is an annual holiday tradition at Belmont University where its School of Music features outstanding choral and instrumental ensembles that have received high praise both nationally and internationally. The concert is a wonderfully diverse musical collage of familiar carols, classical masterworks, percussive world music and light-hearted seasonal songs. The university symphony orchestra, percussion ensemble and jazz quintet join forces with more than 300 student voices and the Nashville Children’s Choir to present Nashville’s own celebration of the season.
PBS programming is carried on the nation’s 349 public television stations, meaning millions of Americans will have the opportunity to enjoy a new holiday tradition from the city called “Music City.”
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.
“We have a world-class School of Music and we are delighted that we can bring our students and faculty to national prominence,” said Dr. Robert C. Fisher, president of Belmont University.
