The stained glass windows and the orderly wooden pews are a welcoming sight for audience members as they escape the crisp weather outside and begin to let the beautiful voices of the Acappella students serenade them.

Both the beginner and chamber Acappella classes will be performing a winter concert on Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. Admission is free for students and there is a $5.00 voluntary donation at the door for adults. The concert will feature solo performances from seniors Meredith Aebi, Anna Morris, Ricky Peters and Cate Selna, Morris said.

“This is the first year in a while I think where there have been multiple solos in the winter concert,” Aebi said.

This year, the beginner men and women will be performing together, Morris said.

The winter concert is different from the annual spring revue, which is held in the Alan Harvey Theater.

“The reason we use the church [for the winter concert] is because it has more capacity,” music assistant Jan D’Annunzio said. “Our audience for the winter concert is always large, well over 500.”   

Acappella teacher Joe Piazza compiles and directs all songs and arrangements in the concert. Piazza also picked out the soloists for the concert, Aebi said.

“This concert is a wider variety of music and has more classical choral repertoire versus, say our revue,” D’Annunzio said.

The Berkeley venue and mostly classical genre of music make the winter concert unique from other Acappella concerts.

“Everyone should come,” Aebi said. “It’s going to be great, we have a lot of good songs.”