They danced in the aisles, on stage and among the musicians.

Sometimes at some Fort Lewis College recitals and concerts, all joy breaks loose. That’s the way it was at Neil Hemphill’s senior recital in early November. By the end of this popular student’s final bash, everyone participated. Hemphill is a jazz studies major. He drew a standing-room-only crowd and a herd of happy feet.

That kind of spirit often fills Roshong Recital Hall and may inhabit semester-end concerts and recitals now through Dec. 9. Beginning tonight in the Community Concert Hall, one musical event after another will take place. Tickets are generally $5 for adults and $1 for students and children, though some are free.

Here’s the lineup:

Tonight: The FLC Jazz Band and Jazz Combo features a 19-member ensemble and a smaller combo playing swing, salsa and samba tunes such as “Caravan” and “Sing Sang Sung.” Soloists include tenor saxophonist Jeff Solon, a well-known jazz performer in the area who teaches jazz improv at the college and student soprano Rachel Saul Pollack.

Thursday: “FLC Percussion Persistence,” by Fort Lewis Percussion Ensembles, includes a lot of high-voltage works for combinations of drums and other instruments plus transcriptions of, surprise-surprise, works by Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Yes, you read that right. Director Jonathan Latta has a flair for finding unusual interpretations of classical works. You’ll hear the Waltz from Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin” performed on mallet keyboard instruments. You’ll also hear a marimba quartet perform the Allegro Assai from Mozart’s Quartet in E flat.

Still, the majority of the concert will be new work, Latta said in a recent interview. The most challenging is “Sisu,” by Finnish composer Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist.

‘Sisu’ is scored for six players,” Latta said, “each performing on multiple instruments that include timpani, tom toms, marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, chimes and pitched gongs. It starts with great energy and sets up a juxtaposition of soft and loud textures.”

Latta said his work requires persistence and endurance which stems from the title. The term “Sisu” may be fundamentally untranslatable, but it represents the country’s most highly valued character trait, a combination of toughness and resilience.

Hemphill will conclude the program with “Suite for Solo Drumset and Percussion Ensemble” by David Mancini. You’ll hear Hemphill rotate through afro-Cuban, samba and funk styles. The audience may be moved to dance in the aisles as they did at his senior recital. “It will be a wonderful close to the concert,” Latta said.

Friday: FLC Music Department Holiday Bash. The Bash has become a local tradition. Conductors Linda Mack-Berven, C. Scott Hagler and Mark Walters have marshaled choral singers and instrumentalists to perform familiar and not-so-familiar holiday music. You’ll hear “Sleigh Ride” and “We Wish You a Mambo Christmas.” You also may have a chance to sing along with favorite carols. Be sure to bring your car keys just in case you’re asked to join the percussion section.

Dec. 5: The Durango Youth Symphony will feature new conductor Nathan Lambert with two groups: the 50-member orchestra and the college’s 10-member chamber ensemble. Continuing the tradition set by Mikylah McTeer and Kasia Sokol, Lambert will conduct the Youth Symphony players in works by Rossini and Copland.

“We’ll play the Overture to Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville,’” Lambert said in a telephone interview, “the one made familiar by the Bugs Bunny cartoon,” he added. Also familiar are the selections from Copland’s “Rodeo Suite,” “Saturday Night Waltz” and “Hoedown.” The middle and high school players will be joined by a number of FLC music students. The smaller chamber orchestra consists of only FLC music students. They will play Edward Elgar’s “Holberg Suite.”

Also not to be missed are a few concerts in Roshong Recital Hall. On Dec. 7, TaSheena T. Calvillo will present her junior recital as a percussion major, then the next night it’s the Fort Lewis Brass and String ensembles. The semester-end student concerts will conclude with a Dec. 9 recital by senior violinist Alex Charpentier.

Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic. Reach her at jreynolds@durangoherald.com.