Hundreds of people drove through the fog and cold to Victoria on Sunday to attend the afternoon performance of the annual Christmas concert at St. Fidelis Catholic Church. The concert, produced and directed by Terry Crull, featured the Fort Hays State University choirs, the Hays Community Choir and the Kennedy/Felten Middle Schools Singing Irish-Falcons, and definitely was worth the effort. (I was sorry, though, to miss the superb Hays High School Chamber Singers, who were scheduled only for the evening performance.)

Actually, the winter weather helped the church and the music cast their magic spell upon us. As we entered, the church enveloped us in its beauty and warmth, while the music of the FHSU trombone quartet declared the advent of marvels.

After a rather sluggish start -- a prelude that went on too long and was less than thrilling, congregational singing of an Advent hymn that not everyone knew well, and a performance by the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time FHSU Women's Chorale -- things improved.

Amanda Pfenninger, soprano, Brad Dawson, piccolo trumpet, and Tom Meagher, harpsichord, collaborated on "Let the Bright Seraphim" from the opera "Samson" by G.F. Handel. The bright timbre and accuracy of Pfenninger's coloratura joined that of Dawson's piccolo trumpet, creating a golden filigree of sound.

Not to be outdone, the Hays Community Choir, conducted by Crull, performed several Medieval and Renaissance songs pleasingly, then joined forces with Hilary Shepard, flute, and Pam McGowne, piano, to win the hearts of the audience with "What Child is This" ("Greensleeves"), in a modern arrangement by Jack Grotenhuis. The FHSU Brass Choir, conducted by Lane Weaver, then gave a rousing performance of "Holy, Holy, Holy" arranged by James Curnow and adapted for brass choir by Weaver.

The interlude enabled the FHSU Concert Choir to assemble for "A Hymn to the Virgin" by Benjamin Britten. This went extremely well, but the real high point of the concert was the following number sang in Zulu, "Hope for Resolution (A Song for Mandela and de Klerk)" arranged by Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory, in which the FHSU choir was joined by the Singing Irish-Falcons; Stephanie Demuth, flute; and Joann Gaunt, soprano sax.

Later, the Singing Irish-Falcons performed a set of their own, conducted by Johnny Matlock and accompanied by Alexis Robinson. Their singing was excellent and their music interesting -- "Medieval Gloria" by Vijay Singh, "Jubilate Deo" by Michael Praetorius and, last and best, "Children of the Light" by Valerie Ann Webdell, in which Robinson shone in a brief piano solo.

When one considers these singers still are in middle school and, as Gayle Weber wrote in Sunday's Hays Daily News, they are "a non-audition choir," their sound is so good, it has to be heard to be believed.

Following a nice interlude by the FHSU Flute Choir, directed by Shepard, the concert ended with FHSU's elite choir, the FHSU Singers, conducted by Crull. Among other pieces, "Father Eternal" by Ralph E. Williams stood out because of its exquisite Renaissance-like counterpoint.

And, in contrast to its beginning, the concert reached a thrilling conclusion with the Singers' performance of "To Him We Sing" by Robert H. Young and with the postlude, "Toccata" on "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" by Felix Mendelssohn, arranged for organ by Diane Bish and masterfully performed by Meagher.

Ruth Firestone is a supporter of music and theater in Hays.