I love hearing Christmas music performed live so I was really excited for the Gentri Christmas concert last night. This was my fourth year attending this concert and it has become one of my favorite traditions! Casey Elliott, Brad Robbins, and Bradley Quinn Lever, better known as Gentri (short for The Gentlemen Trio), began with "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," "He Is Born, the Heavenly Child," "We Three Kings," and "Away in a Manger." Then they were joined by the Rise Up Children's Choir for "Ave Maria" (the children sounded like angels in this song) and "Do You Hear What I Hear." In between these songs, three of the boys from the choir who have formed their own trio called the Junior Gents, performed "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and they were really good (the gents joked that they could take over for them when they become the Geriatric Gents). Next came their original song "Finding Christmas" and then "O Holy Night" which I absolutely loved because their arrangement is so beautiful (this has been my favorite Christmas song since I was a little girl and I always hope to hear it performed live every year). They concluded their first set with "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly" which was very powerful. After the intermission, they performed a mash-up of "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and "Joy to the World" featuring David Halliday on saxophone. This really got going with lots of audience participation! They continued with "Little Drummer Boy," which is one of their most popular songs, with Nick Johnson on acoustic guitar followed by their original song "All is Well" with the Rise Up Children's Choir. Their music director Stephen Nelson arranged a piece on the spot using a movie score and a Christmas song suggested by the audience (they do this every year and it is extremely popular with the crowd). Our audience picked the theme from Mission: Impossible and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" and it was surprisingly good! They continued with their version of "Silent Night" and then their original song "Somewhere in Your Silent Night" which is really beautiful. They performed "Welcome to Our World" from their latest Christmas album Emmanuel and then ended with a rousing rendition of "O Come, All Ye Faithful." The gents were as amusing as ever and it was a wonderful concert! I thoroughly enjoyed it and got a big dose of Christmas cheer!
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