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Christmas Festival to be shown live across nation -- tickets available now

By Karl Reichert
October 31, 2007

Check for participating theatres and purchase simulcast tickets here.


High definition and surround sound
The St. Olaf Christmas Festival -- one of America's longest running celebrations of Christmas -- will be simulcast live for the first time ever in high-definition and cinema surround sound to nearly 200 movie theatres on Sunday, Dec. 2, at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT (that's 3 p.m. St. Olaf time) from St. Olaf's Skoglund Center Auditorium. The simulcast will include a 30-minute introduction featuring the history of the college and the event.

Festival06
A view of the 2006 St. Olaf Christmas Festival. The annual event features more than 500 students performing in five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra.
The St. Olaf Christmas Festival is a two-hour service of hymns, carols, choral works and orchestral selections that celebrate the birth of Christ, performed by more than 500 student musicians under the leadership of conductor Anton Armstrong '78. More than 12,000 students, alumni and friends of the college attend the four sold-out performances presented on the St. Olaf College campus every December.

Now, for the first time ever, patrons across the country can experience the event in movie theatres nationally, live via satellite in high-definition and cinema surround sound, presented exclusively by NCM Fathom and live event specialists BY Experience -- in conjunction with Twin Cities Public Television -- at 196 participating Regal, United Artists, Edwards, Cinemark and AMC movie theatres across the United States.

Tickets for this special one-time event will go on sale starting Friday, Nov. 2, for $20 at presenting theatre box offices and online.

Anderson
Anderson
"We are delighted that technology makes it possible for St. Olaf College to share the Christmas Festival with audiences all across America this year," says St. Olaf College President David R. Anderson '74. "One of the oldest and most distinguished musical celebrations of Christmas in America, the Christmas Festival reflects not only the excellence of the music program at St. Olaf but also the College's deep and enduring commitment to its Lutheran identity."

Anderson hopes that the Christmas season becomes enriched for everyone who experiences this simulcast event.

Sharing the music
JohnsonBJ04
Johnson
"Throughout the history of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, we have had a tradition of sharing the music of the season with as many people as possible," says B.J. Johnson, manager of music organizations at St. Olaf College. The first radio broadcast of the Festival occurred locally in 1949, and NBC broadcast it nationwide in 1954. It was first televised in 1975.

Johnson says that millions of people around the world have made the St. Olaf Christmas Festival part of their holiday tradition. "The one-time only, high-definition simulcast to movie theaters across the country carries this tradition into the 21st century," he adds.

The participating choirs include the St. Olaf Choir, conducted by Anton Armstrong '78; the Viking Chorus and Chapel Choir, conducted by Christopher Aspaas '95; the Cantorei conducted by John Ferguson; the Manitou Singers conducted by Sigrid Johnson; and the St. Olaf Orchestra, conducted by Steven Amundson. Each group will perform individually and as part of a mass ensemble. The event reflects the same Christian conviction that was intended when F. Melius Christiansen, founder of the St. Olaf College Music Department, began the service in 1912.

The St. Olaf Christmas Festival has been listed as one of five significant global holiday events in The New York Times International Datebook, and has been featured in such publications as TV Guide, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. A one-hour highlights version of the Festival, produced by Twin Cities Public Television, will debut on PBS stations nationally in December.

Karl Reichert is a freelance publicist for St. Olaf Music Organizations.

Contact David Gonnerman '90 at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.