The Department of Music will present its annual Vespers Christmas Concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at First Baptist Church.

The event will feature the A Cappella choir, the University Chorale, the ACU Chamber Orchestra and several smaller groups, including a saxophone quartet and brass choir and will be free to the public. Dr. Jeff Goolsby, director of choirs, said he looks forward to continuing the tradition each year.

“We bring all of these musicians together to perform what I would call a sacred concert,” Goolsby said.

The department conducted the first Vespers Christmas Concert, featuring a variety of holiday songs, in 2007 in Cullen Auditorium. More than a decade later, the Vespers concert remains a campus Christmas tradition. Having outgrown its original space, the concert now takes place downtown in the First Baptist sanctuary.

“We use the space in different ways,” Goolsby said. “There are balconies on the side and in the back. We make it all flow using the music and using the space.”

Jalaiyah Chisolm, junior psychology major from Cibolo and member of the University Chorale, said she is excited for another memorable Christmas concert.

“I’m most looking forward to everyone coming together to celebrate Christmas,” Chisolm said.

Katie Howard, freshman vocal performance major from Chicago, said she is looking forward to her first Vespers concert.

“I’m excited to hear all the other music that A Capella choir is singing and that the instrumentalists are playing,” Howard said.

This year, the A Capella choir will collaborate with the Chamber Orchestra to perform three movements of Alice Parker’s “Gaudete.”

The concert will feature three liturgists who will read Scripture between pieces.

April Napier, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Dr. David Wray, professor emeritus of Bible, missions and ministry, and Dr. John Camp, associate professor of communication, will read this year.

“It straddles this line between a performance, a formal concert and a worship service,” Goolsby said.