Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College: Looking back at 2023 Commissioned Composer: Cheryl Frances-Hoad
In 2023, Cheryl Frances-Hoad was commission by King's College, Cambridge for the new carol for their Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. As we have followed her career for a while now, we announced at the time that Francis-Hoad's selection was well deserved.
Cheryl Frances-Hoad was born in Essex. She received her musical education at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, and Kings College London.
In 2015, BBC Radio 3 chose Francis-Hoad for its ‘Composer of the Week’ (Five under 35). The composer won the BBC Lloyds Bank Composer of the Year award at the age of 15! She was also the winner of The RPS Composition Prize, The Mendelssohn Scholarship, and three Ivor Novello (formally BASCA) British Composer Awards (for Psalm 1 and Stolen Rhythm in 2010, and Scenes from the Wild in 2022).
In 2016, Frances-Hoad also was one of the first recipients of the PRS Composer's Fund Awards.
Her residencies include Leverhulme Musician in Residence (at the University of Cambridge Psychiatry Department, 2008), Rambert Composer in Residence (2012/13), Opera North/Leeds University Cultural Fellow in Opera Related Arts (2010/12), Visiting Research Fellow in the Creative Arts at Merton College Oxford (2021/2) and Visiting Fellow at Keble College Oxford (2022).
Frances-Hoad's carol was "The Cradle", first performed by The Choir of King's College, Cambridge on 24th
December 2023 as part of the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at
King's College, Cambridge, conducted by Daniel Hyde with organist Paul
Greally and broadcast on BBC Radio and Minnesota Public Radio.
The King's College website says, "The Cradle is a setting of an English translation by Robert Graves of an anonymous seventeenth century Austrian text.
I wanted to set myself the challenge of writing a gentle carol, and
it took many attempts to come up with something that I hope is catchy
yet not clichéd, and heartfelt yet not syrupy. The vivid imagery of this
anonymous seventeenth century Austrian text in an English translation
by Robert Graves was a joy to set, and I hope my music conveys both the
intimacy and the glory of the poem.
I was absolutely delighted when Daniel Hyde asked me to write a carol for this year's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols:
I have looked forward to finding out who wrote the new carol every year
since I was a little girl, and always dreamed that one day it would be
me!
Cheryl Frances-Hoad
King’s Director of Music, Daniel Hyde, added:
“Cheryl’s carol is a masterpiece in understatement, hauntingly
beautiful and so carefully written for the current generation of King’s
College Choir. We greatly look forward to singing The Cradle on Christmas Eve.”
Winner of the Bach Choir Carol Competition, premiered at the Royal Albert Hall during their Christmas Concert, 1995.
SATB
The Snow Woman: I. Allegro moderato (2007)
Commissioned by Natalia Lomeiko and premiered at the Orangery, Holland Park, April 2008.
"Shamanism
provides the imaginative spur for the solo violin piece The Snow Woman
(2007), which was composed as an encore piece for Natalia Lomeiko to
play after concerto performances. The inspiration here was a Siberian
folk-tale, Tynagirgin and Gitgilin, about two giants and a young shaman
in search of a wife. The giants make repeated attempts to kill the young
man, but twice he outwits them through his ability to change shape -
into a mosquito, or a hawk - and eventually he is able to summon up the
sea itself to drive them away and take the giants' wife for his own."
Premiered at Peterborough Cathedral on 16 February 2017, as part
of Even You Song by Peterborough Cathedral Choir conducted by Steven
Grahl, with David Humphreys (organ).
Gaude et Laetere (2016) SSATBB, Commissioned by the Marian Consort and premiered at the Kendal Midday Concert Club, Kendal Town Hall, 2nd November 2016.
Lordings, Listen To Our Lay (2017), SATB, Commissioned by the Musicians' Company and premiered at their
Carol Service at St Michael’s Cornhill, London on 13th December 2017 by
the Choir of St Michael’s conducted by Jonathan Rennert.
Photo above is from the King's College website by Pamela Davis Kivelson. Take down upon request.
Grayston Ives Commissioned for the 2024 Carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge
On December 6, 2024, King's College, Cambridge announced that it had commissioned composer Grayston Ives for the 2024 new carol to be performed at its Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The new carol will be performed at the festival on December 24, 2024.
Here at the Christmas Carols Blog, we've long followed Grayston Ives for many years, and his selection is well deserved.
Grayston is a composer, choral director, former member of the King's Singers, and alumnus of Cambridge University.
Ives was a chorister at Ely Cathedral before studying music at Cambridge. There he took lessons in composition from Richard Rodney Bennett. After his studies, he sang as a chorister at Guildford Cathedral and later joined the King's Singers. With the King Singers he participated in many recordings and performances.
Ives directed the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford for eighteen years. The choir was nominated for a Grammy for an album that focused on Orlando Gibbons. The choir also premiered Paul McCartney's Ecce Cor Meum.
His musical publications are many and his arrangements and composition are performed widely.
Grayston's carol is "Three Points of Light" with words by Peter Cairns. It is published by: Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart.
Here are a few of Ives' Christmas works:
"O Remember Adams Fall"
(2004)
For SATB & Organ
Words taken from the Psalms
Commissioned by Westminster Abbey for the National Service marking the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery
2022 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols: King's College Cambridge
Make sure to listen to this year Festival of Nine Lessons and carols from King's College, Cambridge. It will be available until January 23, 2023, on BBC Radio 4.
See below for the order of service:
Hymn: Once in royal David's City (Irby, arr. Willcocks)
Bidding Prayer (read by the Dean)
Carol: Up! Good Christen folk, and listen (Piae Cantiones, harm. Woodward)
First lesson: Genesis 3 vv. 8-19 (read by a Chorister)
Carol: The truth from above (Vaughan Williams, arr. Christopher Robinson)
Carol: Adam lay ybounden (Warlock)
Second lesson: Genesis 22 vv. 15-19 (read by a College student)
Carol: Illuminare Jerusalem (Judith Weir)
Third lesson: Isaiah 9 vv. 2, 6-7 (read by a member of College staff)
Carol: O Little town of Bethlehem (Walford Davies)
Hymn: It came upon the midnight clear (Noel, descant Scott) Fourth lesson: Isaiah 11 vv. 1-9 (read by the Master over the Choristers)
Carol: Peace on Earth (Errollyn Wallen)
Carol: Sans Day Carol (Trad. Cornish, arr. John Rutter)
Fifth lesson: Luke 1 vv. 26-38 (read by a Fellow)
Carol: An old carol (Quilter)
Carol: Angelus ad Virginem (Matthew Martin) – 2022 Commission Sixth lesson: Luke 2 vv. 1-7 (read by the Mayor of Cambridge)
Hymn: Unto us is born a Son (Puer nobis, arr. Willcocks) Carol: In the bleak midwinter (Darke) Seventh lesson: Luke 2 vv. 8-20 (read by the Director of Music)
Carol: The Shepherds’ Cradle Song (Leuner, arr. Macpherson) Eighth lesson: Matthew 2 vv. 1-12 (read by the Vice-Provost)
Carol: O magnum mysterium (Victoria) Carol: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (Gardner)
Ninth lesson: John 1 vv. 1-14 (read by the Provost)
Hymn: O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fideles, arr. Willcocks) Collect and Blessing
Hymn: Hark! the herald angels sing (Mendelssohn, arr. Ledger)
Organ voluntaries: In dulci jubilo, BWV 719 (Bach) Prelude and Fugue in B major Op. 7 No. 1 (Dupré)
Cecilia McDowall: Commissioned for Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
King's College, Cambridge announces McDowall was commissioned for a new carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
On November 12, 2021, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge announced on their Facebook Page that composer Cecilia McDowall had been commissioned to write the annual new carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carol. A press release was also released.
Since 1983, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge has commissioned a prominent composer to write a new carol to be performed at the annual Festival of Nine Lessons in Carol on Christmas Eve.
The tradition was started by the late Stephen Cleobury to continue the tradition of carol composition. The first composer commission was Lennox Berkley and the last was Phillip Moore. No composer was commission in 2020, most likely due to the world-wide pandemic.
The announcement of the new carol is often the most anticipated new carol in the choral world and we think the carol-loving world was sad that no carol was premiered last year. See"The State of the Christmas Carol: 2020."
The Christmas Carols Blog has been using King's list of past commissioned composers to explore the modern carol repertory. So far we have focused on:
Also of interest to readers is our post Working List of Choral Recording Focusing on Modern Composers Christmas Works on albums dedicated to the Christmas repertory of select composers. They include Peter Warlock, Stephen Paulus, Ola Gielo, Bob Chilcott, Ralph Vaught Williams, Michael John Trotta, Leo Sowerby, William Ferris, Paul Edwards, Leroy Anderson, Witold Lutoslawski, Alfred Burt, Gustav Holst, William Walton, John Rutter, Jacques Cohen, John Tavaner, Daniel Pickham, Samuel Pegg, and Ben Perry.
King's announced McDowell's carol would be a setting of "There is no rose."
"There is no rose," of course, is a text very famous in the carol world. According to the editors of the New Oxford Book of Carols, it is found in the "early fifteenth-century manuscript roll in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge."
Is is the last item listed in the manuscript and had original music but the original music is difficult to decipher due to manuscript decay.
The editors state, "The identification of Mary with the rose was a common medieval conceit which forms the bases of several surviving English carols and a multitude of Latin hymns." The editors state the Latin in the first three verses may be derived from the "Chirstmastide office (Introit) antiphone "Gaudeamus, omnes fedeles: Alvator noster natus est in mundum..." ("Rejoice, all we faithful, our Saviour is born into the world...").
There are also modern settings by John Joubert and Benjamin Britten among other composers.
Sources: Keyte, Hugh and Parrott, Andrew. The New Oxford Book of Carols," Oxford University Press, 1992: 28.
Disclaimer:The heading photo used above is from McDowell's website. We do not know who is the owner of this photo, and infringement is not intended. We will gladly oblige any take down under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We will also obliged to add an photographer credit. The second photo is by Karina Lyburn and is a post on the Choir of King's College, Cambridge's Facebook page and also appears to be a photo on McDowell's website also. Photos are used under the allowance made for "fair use" under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. We will obliged any takedown request of the Lyburn photo under the DMCA.
(Above image form United Music Publishing Limited)
Diana Burrell was commissioned in 1993 for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge to write a carol. She l was the the second woman to be commissioned.
For a bio of Burrell, we direct you to the webpage of United Music Publishing Limited. She studied music at Cambridge University. She went into her professional career as a violist and has many good composition for the instrument. She wrote one of her first compositions for the 1980 St Endellion Music Festival. Her first major orchestral composition, "Landscape," premiered in 1988. Burrell teaches at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2006, the composer became the Artistic Director of Spitalfields Festival in London. That same year, she was awarded a fellowship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council at the Royal Academy of Music. She was also the artistic director of the Festival from 2012 to 2014.
Her Christmas carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 1993 was "Christo Paremus Cantica" which is based on an anonymous 15th Centruy text. It is available on the United Music Publishing Limited website. Some history and lyric of the text can be found at hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com.
Burrell's Christmas works are not many, but they include the recent "Green Groweth the Holly" (2019) which was included in a recording by Choirs of St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 2020 for their album Alpha & O: Music for Advent & Christmas on Resonus Limited.
For further works by Burrell, see United Music Publishing Limited's webpage and she also has a YouTube channel.
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Choristers of St Paul’s Cathedral sing Christmas carols during a photo call inside the Cathedral in central London December 22, 2014. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters). Photo is
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The State of the Christmas Carol: 2020
by Ray Rojas
Note: We had some issues with the text on the blog going from white to black and tried every effort to fix it to no avail. Our apologies.
We moved into the new decade of the 2020s with already
some sadness in the Christmas carol world.
In the last decade we lost three
former former directors of the Choir of King College, Cambridge. We also saw
several retirements of people who have provided a host of carol recordings and
performances in the last forty years.
In 2014, Edward Higgenbottam retired
after 35 years as director of music position at New College, Oxford. We also
had Rene Clausen who led many a Christmas festival at Concordia College leading
his last concert before his retirement. In 2018, Stephen Cleobury, director of
the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, directed his last Festival of Nine
Lessons and Carols. He later passed away in 2019. So it was a bit a gloomy, but
none knew how gloomy 2020 would be.
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Twenty twenty came, and within a few months, the worldwide
pandemic had taken over headlines worldwide. Then, when 87% of the attendees
of a Seattle choir practice contracted COVID-19, fear ran across the choir
world. Although there was social distancing, sixty-one members got symptoms and
two died.
With governments locking things down across the globe,
and people self isolating, the classical music world practically shut down. Concerts
were cancelled and others moved outdoors. Performers were forced to distance at
performances often wearing masks. There was a hope the worse of the pandemic
would pass before the 2020 holiday season when Christmas concerts would take
place.
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The global pandemic deeply affected professional
musicians because this is their livelihood. One BBC radio essay focused on the
effect of the pandemic on composers. The majority of new commissions are for
the holiday season. If Christmas concerts, services, and masses were not going
to happen, no petitions for commissions were going to occur either. No
commissions, no honorariums for composers.
In the United States, church and state clashed regarding
religious gatherings even as some religious gatherings led to surges in
positive COVID-19 cases. Other religious groups voluntarily cancelled large
gatherings, often moving online. Open defiance of mask wearing and building
capacity restrictions made many to allege a “War or Christmas.”
In the United Kingdom, carol singing was somewhat banned
to avoid people gathering. By the end of November, the state of many Christmas
concerts and religious performances were in limbo. An effort led by John Rutter,
Aled Jones, Tamin Little, Julian Lloyd Webber among others, sent an open letter
to the British government advocating to let Christmas carols concerts and
caroling proceed. The letter stated that Christmas carols were a “fundamental
part of the UK’s culture.”
The government lessened restrictions, limiting indoor performances
to performers only. For caroling, it asked carolers stay two meters apart and away
from the threshold of houses.
World’s
Favorite Christmas Broadcast
It was the Superbowl of Carol Services that would be in
question. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, performed at King’s College,
Cambridge by the Choir of King’s College has been the high mark of the
Christmas season for carol advocates.
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The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcasts the
Christmas Eve service across the globe. In late November, the college announced
that there would be no congregation in the chapel this year. Although slightly
depressing because who does not love when the congregation joins the choir
singing “Once in Royal David’s City,” “Hark the Herald Angels,” or “O Come all
ye faithful” — we took it in good stride.
Within a week before Christmas, two choral scholars of
the choir tested positive for COVID-19. Although they only suffered mild symptoms,
this would mean the other choral scholars were probably exposed and would not
be able to participate in the Christmas Eve service. For those of you who do
not know who “choral scholars” are, they are usually the undergraduates who
sing with the trebles, the trebles being young boys.
From what I can gather, the choir was recording a backup
concert around the same time. With a forty-eight-hour notice, the King’s
Singers were asked to replace the choral scholars and the service was recorded.
The Telegraph called it, “The race to
save the nation’s favourite Christmas broadcast.”
Later, the college announced the services on Christmas
Eve would not be live, but the earlier recorded service would be broadcasted. The
college stated that with further lockdowns by the government as well as travel
restrictions, it would be irresponsible for the college to have singers, staff,
and faculty travel to Cambridge.
Virtual
Caroling
There was a great effort to have King's College's service broadcast
live. Many choirs and classical ensembles went virtual for their concerts. In
addition, where there use to be only a handful of cathedrals and great churches
that use to broadcast their compline, vespers, masses, and evensongs, now, many
went to virtual religious services. What you might never see in one’s lifetime,
you can suddenly see carols services from Ely Cathedral, see Conspirare
performing live from Austin, Texas, a live Christmas concert by singers in
hardhats from Notre Damn Cathedral in Paris.
In truth, as a Christmas carol fanatic, one found it hard
to keep up. You wanted to watch everything. Yet, this year we at Christmas Carols
& Sacred Music, we posted links to live performance after live performance.
Classical MPR, Classic FM, and Classical-Music.com, posted lists of online performances
as well.
Carol
Fandom
At Christmas Carols & Sacred Music, we also decided
to keep a running list of new Christmas classical albums instead of putting it
out after Christmas as we usually do. Furthermore, the list is to be “working,” meaning we will
continually update it with the assistance of the carol-loving community. We
also created a working list of carol premieres and Christmas musical commissions
because we saw the need to keep track of the new carols out there.
Among other news, one scholar in an article said, “Once
In Royal David’s City," ‘Away in a Manger," and "Good King
Wenceslas," were not "real" carols tempting us to look back at
the real carols of early music.
Chris Westbrook won the BBC’s Carol
competition. Alastair Boyd has won the TMC Choral Composition with his "A Hymn on the Nativity" (see it performed on the Toronto Mendelson Choir's Festival of Carols concert). The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College did not have
a commissioned carol this year, although it did release a recording of "Peace on Earth" by Errollyn Wallen, one of the last carols King’s recorded
with Cleobury.
Choir of King's College, Cambridge: "Peace on Earth" by Errollyn Wallen
Various new Christmas recordings were released. Among
them, new recordings by Queen’s College Oxford, Winchester College Chapel
Choir, Trinity Boy’s Choir, Choir of St. John’s Cambridge, SWR Vokal Ensemble,
Musica Bohemica, Choir of Keble College Oxford, the Godwine Choir, Chanticleer
to mention a few.
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Favorite Carols
“O Holy Night” was voted the nation’s (UK)
favorite carol on Classic FM. Why does the United States not have a similar
survey? The choice of the favorite carol, often gives a measure of the mood of
the country. In the United States, we have to rely on Billboard, iTunes downloads, and Spotify plays of popular Christmas
music. Unfortunately, there is a desert of carols on these lists. Surveying
many of them, “O Holy Night” was the only carols listed. One list had “O Holy
Night” in the top 10 (sung by Josh Groban). The next carol ranked was “O Holy
Night” again at 65 (Carrie Underwood). On another list, The Bare Naked Ladies
recording of “God Bless You Merry Gentleman” ranked in the 70s. On the iTunes list, the Pentatonix version of the same carol barely cracks the top 100.
In 1906, “O Holy Night” was the first piece
of music to be broadcast on the radio. We at Christmas Carols & Sacred
Music have called “O Holy Night” the “Star-Spangled Banner” of Christmas carols
because so many soloists butcher it. Andrew Gant described “O Holy Night” as an
“art song,” one “meant for a soloist, preferably one as plump and confident as
the Christmas turkey.”[1] Gant
goes on saying, “It doesn’t’ really work sung by a choir, and certainly not by
a congregation.” There are some exceptions that prove him a little wrong, but
we half way agree with him. Those exceptions being John Rutter and John
William’s (Home Alone)(liners nots says it not his arrangement, but he had something to do with it) arrangements.
We can take these informal surveys as a
measure of what the favorite carol in the States and the UK are in 2020. Observing the lyrics, maybe as we “Long lay” “in sin and error pining til He appears and the soul felt its worth,” bring some hope to self-reflections on sin.
Themes
However, in all the cancelations, moves from
live audiences to virtual, I notice new Christmas compositions and concerts this
year dealt with a variety of social justice topics, aside from the traditional
Christmas charity. With the rise of open racism and Fascism again, some
composers dealt with it by composing pieces about racism, reconciliation, and #BlackLivesMatter.
Other did concerts on themes of “All Earth is Hopeful,” “Sun of Justice, Reveal
of Dawn,” and “For Everyone Born.” Issues revolving around the pandemic have
piled on to the plight of the poor, the refugee, and the hungry — themes we
usually associate with Christmas. Others called for peace, much more than the
traditional carols' pleading. Others focused on reunions and hope after a year
of sequestering and socially distancing, that soon “we all will be together.”
"Joseph's Carol" by John Rutter
New Carols
Even Mr. Christmas John Rutter appears to have
written a carol on the whim as only he can do, writing “Joseph’s Carol” in
honor of the Oxford Vaccine Group. It was premiered by the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra with Bryn Terfel. VocalEssence carol competition featured
Travis Ramsey’s new carol on the tradition text “Little Lamb” as well as the premiere of Kim Andre Arnerson's "Nordic Christmas." Diana
Burrells wrote of tradition greenery in “Green growth the holly” for the Choir
of St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge. Also for the same college, a new version
of “O Antiphones” by Christopher Fox.
For the Choir of Bath Abbey, Huw Williams
wrote a new version of “Away in a Manger.” For University College, Dublin, Ivo
Antognini used the text of “Christe Redemptor” for a really lovely new carol. Many
other new compositions and arrangements are mentioned on our post on the
subject.
"Christe Redemtor" by Ivo Antognini (performed by the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin)
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The Bristol Choral Society asked Judith Wier
and Stephen Jackson to judge for its First Carol Competition in memory of Mary
Otty (Mary Otty Prize 2020). The five final carols were to be performed we
assume by the choral society in December. Wier states on her blog that there
were 70 submissions from around the world. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19
restrictions, the winners’ carols were not performed, but 1st Prize
went to Pamela Slatter ("I saw three ships"), with a motet by James Williams ("Christ’s Nativity") at 2nd. Weir
does not mention the place of the others, but states they were Mark Chaundy ("There is no Rose"),
Jamie Brown ("‘Nu tändas tusen Iuleljus’"), and Matthew Heyburn ("I saw a faire Maiden").
Global Flu Pandemic 1918
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If we listen to the music historians, carols
were once dances, not necessarily songs. Carols were sung in secret during
religious oppression or even Puritan canceling of Christmas, carols were sung
in congregations like that first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s
College in 1918 (though not the first Nine Lessons and Carols), a response to
the aftermath of World War I (199 former King's College choristers died in the war)[2] and like today, a global pandemic, the 1918 one
being the Flu Pandemic.
Despite our pandemic worries, carol writing
and singing continued in 2020, maybe in smaller places with smaller crowds, but
there was no reluctance to bring out the carol even though we had every right
to lament this year. All this new music and continued caroling occurred despite
the sickness, loneliness, and death that pervade our present time.
In my at-home carol music, I was moved to
take out the “grand” recordings with full orchestra, choir, and chorus with
brass heavily exaggerated, and I found I played these repeatedly. These were recordings
like the John Alldis Choir with the London Symphony or the Cambridge Singers
with the City of London Sinfonia. To use vaccination jargon, a much larger
dosage of carols was needed this year. Recordings like these satisfied that
craving. Maybe it was a longing for the live concert, or maybe the longing to
hear larger groups of people sing together.
On Christmas Eve, as I listened to the Choir
of King’s College and the King’s Singers finish the Festival, I knew it was not
a live broadcast, and I knew the congregation was not singing along. However,
the spirit of caroling still rang out in the chapel. “Hark the Herald Angels”
was being sung, ending the festival. As the first chords of “In dulci jubilo”
by Johanne Sebastian Bach blared out on the organ and the radio announcer
stated this had been a broadcast of the festival live from King’s College,
Cambridge, you still feel that warmth. As the lyricist (or poet) for “O Holy
Night” wrote in the original French text:
“ …love unites
those whom iron once held in chains…People, arise! Song of your deliverance.”
John
Sullivan Dwight who translated the song could not make a literal translation of
the French, but he wrote “Truly He taught us to love one another.” It
has since given us much hope and peace, just as carols should.
[1]
Gant, Andrew. The Carols of Christmas: A
Celebration of the Surprising Stories Behind Your Favorite Holiday Songs,
Nelson Books, 2015, p. 84.
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Always a good holiday tradition, Classical MPR has put out their annual Classical Holiday Programming Schedule in which they include concerts by Concordia Christmas Concert, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, the annual Hanukkah show "Candles Burning Brightly, and the annual Thanksgiving shows "Every Good Thing" and "Giving Thanks."
Also featured are "Hollywood Holiday," "A Chanticleer Christmas," the "St. Olaf Christmas Festival," "Handel's Messiah," Minnesota Orchestra, "Cantus presents Lessons for our Time," "Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols," and "New Years Day from Vienna." Sure to be a great holiday season.
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