"A Soulful Holiday Celebration" will include a wide range of holiday classics, new gospel compositions by resident artist Alton Merrell, and a few musical surprises. Merrell, a world class pianist who has performed with numerous jazz legends, is a member of the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra and is a professor of jazz piano at West Virginia University.

"Doctor Merrell has worked with our jazz students this semester on the relationship between jazz and gospel music," said Emmett Goods, director of the Big Band. "He’s also taken our students through his own highly complex arrangements. This is a concert not to be missed."

Atla DeChamplain, a jazz vocalist who was mentored by the legendary Jon Hendricks, joined URI in August 2021 as an assistant teaching professor in the new amplified voice program. This fall, she launched the Jazz Vocal Ensemble, which performed with the Big Band for the first time earlier this fall.