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Beyond the traditional trees and bright lights, Christmas is a visual teasure. Many envision a manger and a Holy Family bearing the gifts of love and joy and Peace on Earth. Some visualize a right jolly old elf streaking through the sky behind eight tiny reindeer with a sleigh full of toys for all the good little boys and girls and a lump of coal or worse for those who don’t quite measure up.
There are visions of sleigh bells, walks in the winter wonderland, aromas of chestnuts over an open fire, and gleeful prayers to let it snow, and then snow some more. Many find themselves accompanied by the caroling of bells as they struggle elbow to elbow in shopping malls seeking the perfect gift for those they love.
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The universal language of music demonstrates that the visions of Christmas are without boundaries. There is no other medium of communication that can better portray the simple creed of those who must overcome the ravages of famine and starvation, disease and oppression, to dream of a rude stable in a place called Betelehemu. There is no other medium that could find itself in a tiny orthodox church in the heart of Russia and hear some of the most glorious harmonies ever written.
There is no other medium that could find itself in the exquisite Church of the Resurrection in the heart of St. Petersburg and hear the magnificent chords created by Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the great composers of the 20th century. There is no other medium that has the versatility to communicate the beauty of Christmas from the Andalusian hills, or from a Leipzig cathedral, from the coal-producing areas of Silesia, or in Latin poetry.
In this concert, we heard our most cherished visual images of the wonder of Christmas translated into a universe that only the glory of music can master.
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THE ENTIRE PROGRAM
Fum Fum Fum
Arr.: Robert Shaw and Alice Parker
Three Chorales (from the Christmas Oratorio)
Johann Sebastian Bach
Lux Aurumque
Eric Whitacre
Carol of the Bells
Arr. Peter J. Wilhousky
Spaseniye Sodelal
Pavel Chyesnokov
Winter Wonderland of Snow
Arr. Mark Hayes
Shepherds and the Stars
Catherine Bennett
(Original composition by OCS singer and accompanist)
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Arr. Carolyn Jennings
Betelehemu
Arr. Barrington Brooks
The Carol of the Birds
Arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker
Blagosloven yesi, Ghospodi
Sergei Rachmaninoff
The Christmas Song
Arr. Ed Lojeski
Twelve Groovy Days of Christmas
Arr. Greg Gilpin
Beautiful Savior (Solo: Mary Petzold)
Arr. F. M. Christiansen
Do You Year What I Hear?
Arr. Emily Crocker
Concert benefits the Wyatt Holliday Foundation
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