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NIACC Performing Arts Series Presents Christmas with the Annie Moses Band

NIACC Performing Arts and Leadership Series proudly presents Christmas with the Annie Moses Band at the North Iowa Community Auditorium on the NIACC campus at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 20, 2022. This presentation is part of the 2022-2023 Performing Arts and Leadership Series.

The Annie Moses Band is a family of Nashville-raised and New York-trained performers. Genre-defying and unforgettable, the group has been thrilling audiences for over a decade with a sweeping virtuosity and musical spirit that is both fresh and poignant. These are true musicians of the highest caliber drawn together by the bonds of family, faith, and love for their audience.

‍Raised by award-winning Nashville songwriters, Bill and Robin Wolaver, this band of Juilliard-trained siblings have graced the stages of Carnegie Hall and the Grand Ole Opry House. Their PBS specials, “Christmas with the Annie Moses Band” and “The Art of the Love Song” broke records and have been nominated for an Emmy. Most recently their 2021 project “Tales From My Grandpa’s Pulpit” topped Billboard charts.

Christmas with the Annie Moses Band is a musical touch of heaven. Signature arrangements of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “O Holy Night,” and sweeping originals like “When the Christmas Baby Cries,” brings fans year after year. It is a Christmas tradition that brings the listen to the heart of the sacred story of Christmas.

The story of the Annie Moses Band began in a cotton field in North Texas during the Great Depression. Annie Moses, their great-grandmother, picked cotton for a wealthy landowner and scrimped and saved to pay for a few piano lessons for their grandmother, Jane.

Jane learned from her mother’s sacrifice. Years later, she pinched pennies so their mother, Robin, could learn piano, a pursuit that took her to Oklahoma City University. There she met Bill, a jazz man who loved chord progressions and arranging.

Together they wrote a steady stream of extraordinary songs, including the Sandi Patti hit, “Make His Praise Glorious.”

While Sandi was singing the words of the Psalmist (“praise the Lord with strings!”), they were putting those words into practice – literally. Growing up, their parents worked hard to give them the best musical education possible. It was a trajectory that took them all the way to the Juilliard School.

In 2002, their family came to a crossroads – do they stay on the classical path or take a risk and make their own music?

The answer was the Annie Moses Band, an eclectic sound that reflected their family’s unique blend of roots music and classical polish. Over 15 years later, the Annie Moses Band has recorded more than a dozen albums, produced Telly-nominated PBS specials, traveled to Europe and Asia, and performed on stages as diverse as Carnegie Hall and the Grand Ole Opry.

But the journey didn’t stop with their own music. In 2010 they founded a non-profit, Annie Moses Foundation, which nurtures the artistic development of families. The Annie Moses Foundation supports their local Conservatory, their online music curricula, and their annual Summer Music Festival. Pouring their talents into the lives of young musicians is deeply fulfilling. Their vision is to see a new generation of faith-filled artists who can fill every art form with truth, beauty, and goodness.

It’s been an exciting journey so far, and the legacy of Annie Moses continues!

To learn more about Christmas with the Annie Moses Band, visit their website at anniemosesband.com.

For tickets to the show, call the NIACC Box Office at 641-422-4188. Tickets may also be purchased online at niacc.edu/boxoffice.

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