French Students Put On Holiday Concert

After-school Event Highlights European Solidarity

The annual French Club Holiday Concert is scheduled for Dec. 16 at 3:15 p.m. in the Recital Hall. Entry is free and all Robinson students are welcome.

This concert is a collection of holiday songs performed in French by a group of French students who’ve volunteered to perform. They met in RAISE during the end of November and beginning of December to prepare.The songs for this year include “Les Anges Dans Nos Cieux,” “Petit Papa Noel,” and “Vive Le Vent.”

Pamela Dister, the Robinson French teacher who organizes the event, said the musicians would also perform the European Union National Anthem “in solidarity with France and Europe.”

Dister said the concert is different each year, but always includes an instrumental ensemble and a chorus. “We usually have a guitar ensemble and they accompany the chorus on some of the songs,” she said. “We also have solos and duets, which vary from year to year, so it’s always a surprise.”

After the concert, which lasts about 30 minutes, the audience and performers share food prepared from traditional French recipes by French students. “Students should come,” Dister said. “It’s fun and there’s food.” Dister, along with French teachers Monica Jugnet and Christine Schaffrath, helped start the annual French concert close to 10 years ago when she first started teaching French 1.

Dister has a master’s degree in music history and used to teach piano. “My three favorite things, maybe not in the order, are music, French, and food, and this combines all of it,” she said. “It’s nice to have something delightful and fun.”