Universidad Navideña (2006)

Universidad Navideña is a collection of traditional Christmas songs and carols performed by student jazz and choral ensembles from the nation's premier collegiate music programs, including Berklee, the University of Southern California, the University of Miami, the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. The CD is on sale at the iTunes Music Store, and Amazon.

The album—an eclectic mix of genres such as jazz, salsa, gospel, opera, and pop—will complement any holiday cocktail party and has a bilingual element that will appeal to a broader audience (of the 15 tracks on the album, nine are in Spanish, five are in English, and one is instrumental). The album also includes the hallmark of Latin holiday anthems, "Feliz Navidad," as re-recorded by the legendary José Feliciano.

You can listen to portions of the three Berklee tracks below. The first two tunes feature student Eleonara Bianchini on lead vocals with the Berklee Latin Ensemble performing arrangements by Bernardo Hernandez, assistant professor of contemporary writing and production. The third track features student gospel group Overjoyed performing an arrangement by Dennis Montgomery III, associate professor of ensemble.

• Producer: Rob Rose, Associate Vice President for Special Programs
• Engineer: Rob Jaczko, Chair of Music Production and Engineering
• Executive Producer: Tom RIley