New Year's Eve with the Seattle Choral Company

For decades, music lovers have thronged to the concert hall to ring in the New Year in the style of Old Vienna with programs of Strauss waltzes. On December 31, 1991, the Seattle Choral Company began marking the occasion by presenting some very different but equally popular music: Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

This setting of medieval monk’s poetry might not seem an obvious choice for celebrating New Year’s Eve, but upon reflection, it makes perfect sense. The work’s structure—beginning and ending with an ode to the eternally circling Wheel of Fate (the famous chorus “O fortuna”)—nicely mirrors the experience of looking back on the past year and then forward to the new.

What’s more, those medieval monks devoted a good deal of their poetry to the twin delights of love and ale, topics on the minds of many New Year’s revelers by midnight!

Finally, Carmina Burana makes a big, exciting, glorious amount of noise—perfect for a New Year’s Eve celebration!

Join Maestro Freddie Coleman, the Seattle Choral Company, guest instrumentalists, and soloists in a concert celebration to ring in the New Year.

Attend either the early or the late performance, depending on your evening plans.

"Auld Lang Syne" will be led by members of the Seattle Choral Company.

Featured music:

Carmina Burana by Carl Orff (chamber version for two pianos and percussion)