Students in the vocal choirs at Royster Middle School will kick off the holiday concert season by giving a performance the week after the Thanksgiving holiday. The concert is free and open to the public.

More than 160 students in a variety of choirs, under the direction of Lance Burnett and accompanist Krista Warstler, will perform Tuesday, December 3, in Chanute’s Memorial Auditorium.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. and includes performances by the sixth grade combined choir, an all-female group named the Bellas, an all-male group named the Treblemakers, and Vocal Plus, the audition choir.

Concert selections will range from classic Christmas songs such as “Little Drummer Boy”, “Silent Night”, and a medley of Christmas Carols to more contemporary songs such as “Little Saint Nick,” made popular by the Beach Boys, and “Santa Claus is Back in Town,” made popular by Elvis Presley. It concludes with a performance of two choruses from Handel’s famous oratorio “The Messiah.”

“This concert will have a wide variety of songs,” Burnett said. “The students have been working extremely hard and are very excited to perform.  We are especially eager to sing “the Hallelujah Chorus” at the end of the concert!”

The Royster Middle School Band was scheduled to perform Monday, Dec. 2, but that concert has been moved to Dec. 16. On that night, the RMS Band and the CHS Band will both perform, one after the other, in concert at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

Also on the calendar in December are the CHS Winter Vocal Concert on Dec. 9 and the CES 2-3 Winter Vocal Concert on Dec. 12. Both will perform in the CHS auditorium, beginning at 7 p.m.