Voices in the Laurel will perform a special Christmas concert featuring the poetry of Robert Frost, traditional and international Christmas carols and a medley from “The Polar Express,” at 2:15 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at historic Stuart Auditorium at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center. The performance is a preshow to the Lake Junaluska Singers 3 p.m. matinee performance. Both concerts are part of Lake Junaluska’s Appalachian Christmas Celebration set for Dec. 7-8.

Included in the Voices in the Laurel’s repertoire will be "El cant des Ocells" (Song of the Birds), a Catalan Christmas carol, which the children will sing in Catalan, an official language of the Spanish community of Catalonia. Some of the choir’s members performed the carol at the 130-year-old Basilica Sagrada Familia in Spain this summer.

“When we sang it in Barcelona, the people at our concert leapt to their feet and sang with us,” said Martha Brown, executive director of Voices in the Laurel. “They were weeping. It was one of the most touching moments of our festival tour. It was beautiful. This song is from that region of Spain. We are so excited to share this piece of music with the rest of our choir and the audiences in western North Carolina this season because of its beauty and representation of another culture.”

Also included in the Voices concert will be a medley of Christmas songs from “The Polar Express,” with all of the children in costume and a musical arrangement of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The choir will be accompanied by pianists Mary Ann Cooper and Anna Watson, oboist Judy Dodson, and Robert Brown, drums, and Trevor Stoia, string bass.

Now in its 17th season, Voices in the Laurel is comprised of 60 children, in grades first through 12th from five counties in western North Carolina.

Tickets for the matinee performance of the Lake Junaluska Singers and the Voices in the Laurel preshow are $16.50 for adult reserved ($15 general admission) and $8 for children, age 8 and under. For tickets, call 828-452-2881, purchase them online at www.lakejunaluska.com/christmas or visit the Bethea Welcome Center at Lake Junaluska.