Concordia’s Music Department has been working diligently since the middle of September and will do so until November for the preparation of “Come and See,” the next Christmas Television Special for PBS SoCal. Students and professors are working on recording the variety of music that will be heard in the special, and watched frequently in the two weeks before Christmas.

This special was held at the university in previous years, and the Music Department faculty are in charge of organizing it. Dr. Jeff Held, the co-artistic director said, “We select the music for the program, organize all aspects of the recording process, and make final decisions about mixes and inclusions in the program.” 

Held, and other Music faculty,  maintain a structured schedule so that the special goes as planned and the students can learn and work on the recordings.

The PBS special features a wide variety of musical genres, “Jazz, Americana, commercial, orchestral, choral, handbell and some other individual contributions,” Held said. Some of these genres will be represented by university members such as the choral ensembles or the Music faculty.

There are 18 musical works selected for the special. Among them are some better-known ones such as fragments of “The Nutcracker,” directed by Held, or others such as “Spirit of the Season,” by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri.

Members of Concordia are recording in the Borland-Manske Center, filming videos for the special and, additionally, performing. For the recording sessions, one site or another is used depending on the size of the musical pieces. “We mostly use the recording studio in the BMC for smaller ensembles or solo sessions,” said Ana Carvalho. Carvahlo, a student and singer participating in the project said, for a full choir or orchestra, “we use Choral Hall or Zhang Hall.”

Students “are the recording artists.” After having the audio of the pieces recorded, “We also do video recordings, which is a really fun part for me.” Carvalho said.

The videos for PBS show people singing and “sometimes have planned out movements” Carvalho said, "but we don’t choreograph or dance in this project.” 

Since 2020, the project has been part of Concordia’s holiday itinerary, and since then the university has won a series of Telly awards while partnering with PBS. These include the 2022 Silver Telly Winner Television General-Educational Institution, 2022 Silver Telly Winner Television General-Music Video and the 2024 Silver Telly Winner Television Craft-Use of Music among others.

The Christmas Special is a practical way to learn and be creative at the same time, “I think it really challenges us as ensembles and as individual musicians.” The opportunity to be part of this project is not only “a tremendous learning experience for the students,” Held said, but for Concordia, it furthermore represents an “outstanding outreach across the nation.”

Tags: Alexander Carr

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