“Sparkling” Christmas Music Highlights Ceremony of Lessons and Carols

For more than three decades, the Rockhurst University community has rung in the Christmas season with a combination of stirring choral music, familiar Christmas carols and Biblical readings.

So get out your festive sweater, fire up some hot chocolate, and plan to attend the 33^rd annual Ceremony of Lessons and Carols, scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2 (following a visit from Santa in the Rock Room!) in Arrupe Hall auditorium. Based on the Nine Lessons and Carols first performed at King’s College at Cambridge University in 1918, the performance follows the scriptural story of the birth of Jesus with readings by faculty, staff, students and alumni, and traditional carols and sacred music in between.

What makes a good Ceremony? For Tim McDonald, Ph.D., professor of music and director for the ensembles performing at the ceremony, it means mixing up familiar favorites and pieces likely less familiar to many in the audience. This year, for instance, he said the program includes “Betelehemu” and “Issay, Issay!” which are Nigerian and Ethiopian, respectively. There are some constants, musically, in the years since the ceremony made its debut at Rockhurst — it always begins with “Once in David’s Royal City” and includes “Breath of Heaven.” Another mainstay in the program is what McDonald called his favorite arrangement of the classic “O Holy Night,” by John Leavitt, a composer from Wichita and faculty member from MidAmerica Nazarene University.

“I think it’s one of the most haunting and beautiful arrangements I’ve ever heard,” McDonald said.

On Saturday, the hymns might just sound even more beautiful, as Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra will join the student singers, a unique experience that McDonald said will add to an already rich holiday tradition.

“Many people have told me over the years that for them, this really does mark the beginning of the Christmas season,” he said. “It is definitely a favorite.”