Sonoma State University's Green Music Center is rounding out 2016 with a celebration of winter and the holiday season, highlighting the world-class chamber, world, orchestral, and jazz offerings featured throughout the 2016–17 Fifth Anniversary Season.
While the cherub-voiced Vienna Boys Choir technically kick-offs the holiday festivities at the GMC on November 27, there is plenty to pick from in the month of December. First, an action-packed weekend of music: Australian master of the guitar Tommy Emmanuel brings his Classics & Christmas tour to Weill Hall on Friday, December 9, 2016; Grammy Award-winner Angélique Kidjo performs her special blend of jazz and West-African traditions Saturday, December 10; and Bay Area cellist Zoë Keating, "a one-woman orchestra," comes to Schroeder Hall for a sold-out show Sunday, December 11. The following week, Hawaiian favorites Na Leo return to Weill Hall on Friday, December 16, for a festive display of hula and song. On Sunday, December 18, the fantastic American Bach Soloists and American Bach Choir present Handel's Messiah. Rounding out the holiday season are contemporary jazz icon Dave Koz (Dec. 20) featuring guests Jonathan Butler, Kenny Lattimore, and Ashford and Simpson's Valerie Simpson, and the soulful Sweet Honey in the Rock with "Celebrating the Holydays" (Dec. 22). Tickets and gift cards are available now. Call 1-866-955-6040 or visit gmc.sonoma.edu
Weill Hall at the Green Music Center (Cory Weaver)
Nestled in the picturesque foothills of California Wine Country, the Green Music Center (GMC) is a focal point for arts in the region, with its spectacular 1400-seat Weill Hall, an acoustically exceptional venue with a modular rear wall that opens to terraced lawn seating, providing picturesque views of the surrounding countryside, and the 240-seat Schroeder Hall, a cathedral-like recital hall designed specifically to accentuate instruments, organ and voice in a small, intimate setting. A program of Sonoma State University, the GMC presents year-round programming of top classical, contemporary, jazz and world music artists through the Mastercard Performance Series and is home to the Santa Rosa Symphony.