Many have heard that while merry bells keep ringing, may your every wish come true. Though members of the UNI Clarinet Ensemble do much more than ring bells, they still spread the same message as Bing Crosby while wishing happy holidays to all. 

The Hearst Center for the Arts hosted the UNI Clarinet Ensemble for their holiday concert performance Sunday afternoon. Amanda McCandless, associate professor of music, and Stacia Fortune, graduate assistant for the school of music, conducted the UNI Clarinet Ensemble. 

The ensemble itself is made up of clarinet majors and minors who play clarinet and other harmony instruments. These harmony instruments include: E-flat clarinet, basset horn, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet.

The UNI Clarinet Ensemble meets once a week for fifty minutes and has been working on the music featured in their Holiday Concert for about eight weeks. 

Members of the ensemble fit the theme, as they dressed in holiday colors and wore Santa and elf hats.

The Sophomore Quartet played their rendition of “Joy to the World” featuring Arianna Edvenson, Joseph Kreassig, Nicholas Schumacher and Austin Wright. 

The ensemble also performed five pieces of The Nutcracker Suite, such as “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and “Dance of the Reed Flutes.”  

“I thought it was really great, and it really got me into the Christmas Spirit,” said Erin Norton, junior communication studies major. 

Norton said she enjoyed the Nutcracker Suite Movements best. 

The Senior Quartet also contributed to the holiday performance with three Christmas Carols: “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “O Holy Night” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” This quartet is made up of clarinet players Nicholas Carlo, Hayley Graham, Laura Rodriguez and bass clarinet player Molly Fewell. 

To conclude the afternoon’s performance, the ensemble played an upbeat Christmas carol medley entitled, “Christmas Festival.” This piece was conducted by Fortune. 

The UNI Clarinet Ensemble gives one to two concerts each semester.