POTSDAM — Student and faculty musicians from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music will kick off the holiday season on Sunday, Nov. 23, with the 2025 Crane Candlelight Concert. This year’s concert will include a world premiere and a festive variety of sacred, secular and international holiday favorites.
SUNY Potsdam and The Crane School of Music invite the public to join us for this free family-friendly event. The performance will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 23, in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall, and will also stream live online. A reception will follow in the Hosmer Lobby, for all to enjoy.
“The Crane Candlelight Concert is one of our most cherished traditions, bringing together our students, faculty and community to celebrate the season through music,” said Crane School of Music Interim Dean Dr. David Heuser. “This year’s program blends beloved classics with exciting new works, showcasing the incredible talent and creativity of Crane musicians.”
The Crane Candlelight Concert will open with the Crane Brass Ensemble performing Giovanni Gabrieli’s “Sonata Octavi Toni,” an antiphonal work that will feature groups of brass instruments spaced around the concert hall. The Crane Jazz Ensemble will perform five holiday classics, including “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Sleigh Ride,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” Students Kennedy Royal, Manny Coleman and Cade Lamphere will be featured as vocal soloists. The Crane Brass Ensemble will return to close the first half with Danny Elfman’s “Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Crane’s Mariachi Los Osos Del Norte and Hosmer Choir will open the second half of the concert with the Mexican folk song “Cancion Para Pedir Posada,” Juan Zespedes’ “Convidando Esta la Noche,” and the rousing polka, “El Garabato.”
The concert will continue with performances from various combinations of Crane’s Concert Choir, the Hosmer Choir, Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Nils H. Klykken will conduct the world premiere of his arrangement of “Gaudete, Christus Natus Est,” plus “Bogoroditse Devo” from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “All Night Vigil,” and the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah.”
Student Kameron Karim will conduct the Crane Chorus in Robin Pecknold’s “White Winter Hymn.” P. Wesley Roy will lead performances of “Bashana Haba’ah” by Israeli composer Nurit Hirsch and “Silent Night” by Franz Gruber. Roy will also join conductor Michael J. Colburn and the Crane Symphony Orchestra, to narrate “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” The orchestra will also perform “Sound the Bells” by well-known film composer John Williams, and “Suite from ‘The Polar Express'” by Alan Silvestri.
The annual Crane School of Music holiday celebration performances are a major highlight of the Crane concert season. The holiday concert tradition began in the 1930s, at what was then the Crane Institute of Music at Potsdam Normal School, and has continued to grow in prominence ever since.
This performance will be broadcast live on the Crane School of Music YouTube channel at the concert time. To view the program and see other upcoming streaming performances, visit www.potsdam.edu/cranelive.
