Celebrate Christmas with GFU’s “Sounding Joy” Concert

Reported by Audrey Grice

George Fox University’s (GFU) annual Christmas Concert, “Sounding Joy,” will take place December 6–8 in Bauman Auditorium on the GFU Newberg campus. The event features GFU’s concert choir, the Epiphany theatre ensemble, the Chehalem Symphony Orchestra, and faculty artists on a night dedicated to celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Senior Paul Friesen, a member of the concert choir since 2022, has also participated in Epiphany, GFU’s traveling theatre ensemble. He attributes the concert’s popularity to its balance of spectacle and meaning. 

“Every window of the lobby gets painted, trees and poinsettias cover the stage, and the auditorium is beautifully lit,” Friesen said. “However, amidst all this, the concert never loses sight of the story being told, from the good news proclaimed in Handel’s Messiah to the stillness found in Silent Night.”

Friesen noted that Epiphany enhances the performance with original pieces that reflect and retell the Christmas story in harmony with the “Sounding Joy” theme.

Tickets for this cherished tradition are selling quickly. The Sunday night performance is already sold out, and only single seats remain in the orchestra sections for the Friday and Saturday night shows. Tickets can be purchased on the GFU website. For those unable to secure a ticket, an open dress rehearsal will be held on December 5 at 7 p.m. in Bauman Auditorium, free for the public to attend.

Friesen expressed his enthusiasm for this year’s concert, particularly its enduring message. “As we sing Joy to the World at the beginning of the concert, we fill Bauman Auditorium with the same joy that angels proclaimed to the shepherds 2,000 years ago,” Friesen said. “I hope the audience will continue to be filled with this eternal joy as they enter the Christmas season and the new year.”