The Doudna Fine Arts Center will be having its annual “Carols in the Concourse” concert on Thursday. The concert will start in the afternoon and is free and open to the public.

Dan Crews, the director of patron services for Doudna, said the performance will feature professional and talented students.

“It is not a full blown concert, but small individual groups performing and it’s during the day so EIU employees can attend,” Crews said. “They can bring their lunch, sit and get into the holiday spirit.”

The concert will feature students from both the music and the theatre departments, and tables and chairs will be provided for the event.

The hour-long concert is preceded by the concert band and guest high school performance at 7:30 p.m.

The preceding performance features both Eastern’s concert band and the Charleston High School band in their last performance of the fall semester and will take place in the Dvorak Concert Hall.

While the “Carol in the Concourse” is an annual event, it was not featured in this year’s Doudna brochure for the different concerts and performances the fine arts center has lined up for the academic year.

“This is an annual event, but probably at the time the brochure was put together a date and coordinator had yet to be determined and named,” Crews said.

The main coordinator for the “Carols of the Concourse” performance is Jonathan Bowman, a piano instructor in the music department.

Despite the fact that the performance was not originally listed in the brochure, Crews said the members of Eastern’s music department are more than prepared.

“The students have bee preparing for the event for a number of weeks,” Crews said. “This is not an event that is quickly thrown together.”

The concert will feature holiday music performed by a variety of instruments including flutes, horns, trumpets, and bassoons.

Aside from the holiday music, the “Carols in the Concourse” performance will also feature a reading from the recent play, “A Christmas Carol Radio Play.”

“They come from a variety of areas,” Crews said. “Brass, choral, strings etc., but all Eastern music and theatre students who will be doing the staged reading (will perform).”

The “Carols in the Concourse” concert is scheduled to take place on Thursday afternoon, and the concert band and guest high school band performance will take place later that day at 7:30 p.m.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].