Sacramento State’s Choir performed its 28th annual concert, “Procession of Carols,” Saturday evening at Sacred Heart Church.

The three choir groups, Chamber Choir, Women’s Chorus and University Chorus, performed 20 songs ranging from well-known classics such as “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night” to lesser known songs such as “Angels Carol” and “Torches”. Interspersed throughout the performance were narrations by Richard Adams.

Jessica Dacpano, a junior music major, said the narrations had a lot of religious concepts, which gave the audience an idea of what to expect in the next song.

The performance began with all lights in the chapel turned off except for some small colorful electronic candles the choir members held as they lined up behind the audience.

After two choir members performed a mesmerizing short intro of “Angelus ad pastores ait,” or “The Angel Said to the Shepherds,” the concert began.

Dacpano said a unique aspect with the performance was the fly switching of choirs.

“Unlike other choirs,” Dacpano said,” it incorporated three choirs mixing and matching rather than one choir on-one choir off.”

The clever switching between the three choirs was done during parts where the audience actually stood up and participated in singing popular Christmas songs such as “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

Jim McCormick, host manager and a singer in the Sacred Heart Choir, said there is no intermission and by removing the intermission, the concert flow enhances the performance.

“We don’t encourage applause till the very end because we want to have the concert flow, (or) the spirit of the concert,” McCormick said. “The applause interrupts the flow of the concert.”

Colleen Karbowski, a senior civil engineering major, brought her fiancé, Michael Muth, along to the performance.

“Essentially I had to come for a class, but I have come here before with my family over the years,” Colleen said. “It’s kind of a tradition, but this time I also got credit for my class.”

Muth said he had never attended a concert, but enjoyed it and expressed interest into making it a yearly thing.

“We talked about maybe starting this as a tradition since she did it growing up and I never did,” Muth said. “I really enjoyed it tonight.”

Muth said he felt the performance, which was an hour and 20 minutes long, passed quickly and Karbowski said it was much too short.

“Procession of Carols” will performing two more shows on Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Sacred Heart Church. For ticket pricing and other information visit csus.edu/music/choral/concerts.html

William Miles can be reached at [email protected]