Consort Canzona presents early Christmas music in Carson City

Consort Canzona, a select group of instrumentalists and singers specializing in early music, will present “Something Old, Something New” concerts this holiday season at 7 p.m. Friday and at 4 p.m. Saturday at Shepherd of the Sierra Lutheran Church, 3680 Highway 395 (just south of Best Buy) in Carson City. Admission is free, donations welcome.

The program is a celebration of early Christmas music with a modern twist. It features vocal and instrumental music from the 13th century, and modern arrangements of early carols. The singers and instrumental musicians (recorders, cello, and harpsichord) will play separately and join together for Ein Kindelein so Lobelich by Hieronymus Praetorius, and a modern setting by John Rutter of a 16th century poem, What Sweeter Music. Gale Kehres will be featured on recorder in O Come O Come Emmanuel with Jane Giovacchini on cello.

Carson City musician, the late Sharon Kientz, founded Consort Canzona as an instrumental ensemble in 2009, and singers were added in 2011. The ensemble affiliated as a performing group of the Carson City Symphony Association in 2014 under the direction of Gary Schwartz.

Consort Canzona is supported in part by a grant to the Carson City Symphony Association from the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and by Association memberships and donations. For information, see CCSymphony.com or call the Symphony at 775-883-4154.