A Ceremony Of Carols 2019

Few pieces capture the joy and expectation of Christmas quite as well as Britten’s Ceremony of Carols. This striking setting in eleven movements is scored for upper voices and harp. Britten began work on his Ceremony of Carols in 1942, after three very successful years in America.  On board a Swedish cargo vessel bound for Britain, dodging German U-boats, Britten set some medieval poems from a book he had come across while berthed in Nova Scotia.  
This year we feature Britten's work with Christmas music by American composers.  Lauridsen's O magnum mysterium and Whitacre's Lux aurumque are regularly included in the repertoire of English choirs, but the familiarity of these works has overshadowed pieces by more recent composers, including Stephen Paulus, Jake Runestad and Craig Hella Johnson. While inevitably the English choral tradition has influenced these composers, so too has more indigenous influence of gospel and jazz!