New for 2012: Bring a Torch! This year's program puts the focus on old French carols, alongside two world premieres in the annual VocalEssence/American Composers Forum Christmas carol contest. The new carols call for the intriguing combination of men's chorus with English horn.
Long a favorite from their appearances on A Prairie Home Companion, VocalEssence rings in the season with an all-new Welcome Christmas! It's an hour of joyful holiday music featuring the Minneapolis-based chorus, VocalEssence, and hosted for the fourteenth year by APM's John Birge.
Gramophone magazine called VocalEssence "excellent and vibrant." NEA Chairman Dana Gioia named them "one of the irreplaceable music ensembles of our time." Join us in December for holiday classics new and old, when Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence Welcome Christmas! from American Public Media.
Program
arr. John Rutter: Il est né, le divin enfantarr. Healey Willan: Quelle est cette odeur agréablearr. Henk Badings: À la venue de Noël (With the coming of Christmas)arr. Stephen Mager: Un flambeau, Jeannette, IsabelleJames Kallembach: That Yönge Child [World Premiere]arr. Malcolm Williamson: Ding Dong! Merrily On Higharr. Stephen Jackson: Noël NouveletStephen Paulus: So Hallow'd Is the Time: SelectionsBizet L'Arlésienne: March of the Three KingsRobert Sieving: O Stella de Bethlehem [World Premiere]Adolphe Adam: Cantique de Noël (O Holy Night)arr. Todd Wilson: Les anges dans nos campagnes