Weekend musical highlights include annual Xmas program, big band jazz

On Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. in Sage Chapel, the Cornell Chorale and Low Brass Choir, both directed by James Patrick Miller, will present a program of 20th-century English music for organ and mixed chorus, featuring Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, as well as works for brass choir. This program explores both sacred and secular English music, utilizing the combination of organ and voices so often heard in cathedrals but so rarely displayed in concert halls. The works represent a wide variety of sources: from the writings of a clinically insane poet living with his cat in an asylum (Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb), to the Bible (Britten's Jubilate Deo), from collected English folk songs (Holst's I'll love my love and Vaughan Williams' The Turtle Dove), to the metaphysical poetry of a 17th-century Englishman (Weir's Two Human Hymns). The Low Brass Choir opens the concert with works by Fisher Tull, Anton Bruckner and Henri Tomasi.

On Dec. 6 at 8 p.m., the Cornell University Jazz Ensemble II presents a concert of big band music in Barnes Hall featuring guest trumpeter Walter White. The program opens with the Gussman Chamber Jazz Ensemble performing works by Woody Shaw, Ornette Coleman and Horace Silver. Following a brief pause, the Jazz Ensemble II takes the stage, playing works by Oliver Nelson, Herbie Hancock and Bob Curnow, as well as arrangements by and featuring guest artist White.

White grew up in a musical family near Detroit and was inspired by recordings of Louis Armstrong, Maynard Ferguson and Rafael Mendez. He was trained at Interlochen, Juilliard, the University of Miami and The Banff Centre, and his dynamic trumpet playing led him to work with leading jazz artists, including Bob James, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Gunther Schuller and the Mingus Big Band.

Cornell's Sage Chapel Choir will present its annual Sage Chapel Christmas Program on Dec. 7 and 8, both at 8 p.m. The program is the same both evenings, but there are different readers. Members of the Cornell community, including President Emeritus Frank Rhodes, Cornell United Religious Work Director Emeritus Robert Johnson and professor of computer science Graeme Bailey, will serve as readers, and Rev. Kenneth Clarke and Rev. Janet Shortall will preside. The choir will sing traditional Advent and Christmas hymns, as well as the premiere of conductor Richard Riley's Rorate coeli. Acting University Organist Timothy Olsen will play the historic 3,850 pipe Aeolian-Skinner organ.