Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) will host the 35th anniversary performance of the popular Winter Solstice holiday music series by Windham Hill Records on Dec. 17.
The live concert will feature record label founder and Grammy-winning guitarist Will Ackerman, as well as Grammy Award-nominated singer, fiddler and pianist Barbara Higbie and composer Todd Boston, with special guest cellist Mia Pixley.
The Windham Hill brand became synonymous with the best in acoustic music in the 1980s and ‘90s, catapulting musicians such as Michael Hedges, George Winston, Will Ackerman, Alex de Grassi, Barbara Higbie and Darol Anger to international stardom. What began as a catalog sampler of the company’s best holiday hits ultimately grew into a series of compilation albums that sold in the millions. The Winter Solstice concerts bring Windham Hill full circle.
And it does so in Oklahoma City on the actual eve of winter solstice, an astronomical event defined by the maximum tilt of Earth’s pole away from the Sun. Solstice is the day with the least daylight of the year. It typically falls on Dec. 21 or 22.
Windham Hill’s performance is part of OCCC’s Performing Arts Series, which includes Farewell Angelina in January and The Choir of Man in February.
To purchase tickets, go online to tickets.occc.edu or call the OCCC Box Office at (405) 682-7579. The Box Office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Tickets for the performance range from $25 to $40. They also may be purchased at the door the day of the performance. Doors and concessions will open one hour before the 7:30 p.m. show time. The OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center is located at 7777 S. May Ave., Oklahoma City.