The holiday season approaches and the SOSL tunes up once more for its Family Christmas concert—a Yuletide event that has become one of the season’s most popular and highly anticipated events. This year’s concert takes place at the Bishop’s College auditorium on December 16th and 17th at 7 pm.

The concert programme features fresh and unusual arrangements of holiday classics for both chorus and Orchestra, though perennial favourites full of nostalgia have not been forgotten! The Christmas concert is directed by Dushyanthi Perera and Nishantha Warnakulasuriya. The Old Joe’s Choir, The Menaka Singers, Resonance and Camerati will form the combined choir that will collaborate with the SOSL to present beautifully evocative arrangements of “It’s Beginning to Look like Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” amongst others.

The orchestra will perform a number of festive pieces, including the Triumphal March from Verdi’s Aida and excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. Light classics, such as a beautiful arrangement of Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze,” by Matt Riley, Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” and some exciting medleys of popular holiday tunes such as The Bells of Christmas are also on the programme. This year’s soloists are Nilupul Silva (violin), performing “Czardas” by Vittorio Monti,  Nishantha Warnakulasuriya (baritone) singing “Believe” from the children’s classic “Polar Express,” and Tamara Holsinger (cello) performing Caccicni’s Ave Maria.

The SOSL’s Christmas concert has always been about sharing a special moment with those you love most around you. We hope that the music will inspire a feeling of hope and goodwill towards others and the certain knowledge that dawn is never too far behind our darkest hours. SOSL’s Christmas concert is sponsored by long-time Principal Sponsor, Link Natural Products, with Co-Sponsors First Capital Asset Management Ltd & Chinese Dragon Café, supported by the Access Group, Print Media Sponsor Wijeya Group and Photographer Sagara Lakmal de Mel.

(Pic by Sagara Lakmal de Mel)