Juan Hernandez

The Canyon Choral Society and the Canyon Chorale will perform alongside the Canyon Symphony Orchestra in an Easter Concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday at La Casa de Cristo Lutheran Church in Scottsdale. The performance will feature the Arizona premiere of “The Breath of Life” by Dan Forrest and “Passion According to St. Luke” by Ēriks Ešenvalds. Student and faculty soloists also will be onstage as the Music Department continues to celebrate the return to live performances. “There is something very special about live music that you don’t achieve over the radio, over a recording or over Zoom,” said one of the soloists, Tyler Thompson said.

The Christmas season feels whole again. After a break forced by the pandemic last year, the College of Fine Arts and Production will perform Handel’s “Messiah” at three local churches on Friday, Sunday and Tuesday. The oratorio takes audiences on the journey of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection and has remained a popular Christmas work since it first was performed in 1742.

The Masterworks Concert for the fall semester, scheduled for Sunday afternoon in Phoenix and Monday evening in Scottsdale, will feature the return of the Canyon Choral Society, Canyon Chorale and Canyon Symphony Orchestra to performing in public. It is dedicated to Dr. Sheila Corley, who passed away in August. “Her passing is a tremendous loss to our GCU music community, and we are honored to remember her through the performance of this work,” said Dr. Juan Hernandez, Assistant Dean of Music for the College of Fine Arts and Production.

For years, the College of Fine Arts and Production’s Mark Fearey contemplated putting together an album showcasing his piano abilities, and at long last Fearey’s Christmas album has arrived. Titled “Almost Home,” it contains a compilation of both well-known and lesser-known classics.

The College of Fine Arts and Production is meeting the effects of the pandemic head-on. Its innovations include outdoor performances, master classes with industry professionals, livestreaming and a little of Disney’s “The Mandalorian” thrown in for good measure. COFAP Dean Claude Pensis calls it a “fun challenge.”