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Winter Concert
We celebrate 40 years

Otterbach, Kath. Kirche Mariä Himmelfahrt
04. December 2026

Kaiserslautern-Erzhütten, Prot. Kirche Gustav-Adolf
13. December 2026

Director: Eric Weddle
Piano: Elsie Smith, Lothar Bendel

The Choir

Soprano:
Monica Alent, Hannah Aurand, Angela Benra, Gabriele Biernath, Morgan Cessac,
Maria von Emmert, Marianne von Hagen-Baralt, Ashley Han, Eva Henrich,
Karin Hoffmann, Haley Maddox, Jo Mitchell, Anna Pelikan, Alexandra Ramos,
Carina Schifferdecker, Gosia Schulze, Jutta Strobel, Nicole Thomas,
Natalie Werner, Kristina Wise, Jennifer Young

Alto:
Luisa Benra, Claudia Cafuk, Anna Dech, Konnie Deßloch, Anne Doll,
Kathrin Galijasevic, Christine Gauer, Waltraud Herrgen, Rachel Kalsbeek,
Christy Keating, Jane Kettering, Susi Krueger, Marion Müller, Nadja Nehmer-Gaballa,
Simone Neifeld, Christine Petry, Sarah Ringer, Bettina Rivera, Marlies Röpke,
Susanne Schwetschke, Elsie Smith, Noël Sprenkle, Michelle Walker, Kortney Whaley

Tenor:
Daniel Armstrong, Christoph Hartmüller, Tyler Kersten,
Kyle La Barre, Spencer Lee, Scott Thomsen, Robby Wetzler

Bass:
Guillaume Allardice, Patrick Casey, Stefan Deßloch,
Andreas Fordan, Bryan Fox, Jordan Lamothe, Spencer Lee, Jan Neifeld

Program Order

Solo: Christoph Hartmüller, Spencer Lee
Percussion: Hannah Aurand, Elsie Smith, ?

“Noel" is a communal song of celebration. With text in the African Kituba dialect, this bright, rhythmic piece captures the feeling of a tribal celebration as it expresses the joy of the Christ Child’s birth. 

James Todd Smith (b.1975) is a singer and founding member of the contemporary Christian music band Selah. Smith grew up the son of missionaries in Zaire, Africa (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in a home built by his grandparents, who had been missionaries to the continent since the 1930s. Smith gives credit for his music career to his missionary upbringing. 

Dr. Brad Holmes (b.1956) was Director of Choir Programs at Millikin University from 1991-2022.  He has served on choral faculties at Luther College, Baylor University and currently is Artist in Residence at Hillsdale College. Dr. Holmes has conducted more than 300 festival choirs, including 30 All State choirs, ACDA honor choirs, district festivals, and church music clinics throughout the United States. Internationally, guest-conducting engagements have taken him to England and continental Europe as well as the Far East where he has directed choirs from Korea, Japan, China and the Philippines.

Translation:
Noel! Noel!

Jesus has come to live with us.

If you want to know the Child,

you have to come kneel.

"Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing-day" is a traditional English carol first published in 1833, but its roots go back a few hundered years earlier. The verses of the hymn progress through the story of Jesus told in his own voice and characterized as a dance. 

Alice Parker and Robert Shaw (1916–1999) were towering figures in American choral music who collaborated on more than 200 legendary arrangements of folksongs, spirituals, and carols. Their partnership produced an enduring repertoire that remains a staple for choirs worldwide. Alice Parker (1925–2023), internationally renowned composer, conductor and teacher, studied composition and conducting at Smith College and the Juilliard School where she began her long association with Robert Shaw.  Her list of published compositions has over five hundred titles, ranging from operas through song cycles, cantatas and choral suites to many individual anthems.  

Robert Lawson Shaw (1916–1999) was an American conductor most famous for his work with his namesake Chorale, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. He was known for drawing public attention to choral music through his wide-ranging influence and mentoring of younger conductors, the high standard of his recordings, his support for racial integration in his choruses, and his support for modern music. Over his career, Robert Shaw received dozens of awards and honors including the George M. Peabody Medal and the National Medal of the Arts. In 1991, he received America’s highest award for artistic achievement – the Kennedy Center Honors.

“How Bright Appears the Morning Star” is a chorale composed in 1599 by Philipp Nicolai (1556–1608), a Lutheran court preacher, pastor, and hymn writer. It is characterized by a deep, almost ecstatic love for Jesus and the anticipation of Advent. Building on this, Johann Sebastian Bach (1687–1750) composed his well-known church cantata of the same name in 1725. Bach had a profound influence on choral music and is still regarded today as one of the most important composers of sacred vocal works.

Translation:
How splendid shines the morning star,

God's gracious light from darkness far,

The root of Jesse blessed.

Thou David's son of Jacob's stem,

My bridegroom, king, and wondrous lamb,

Thou hast my heart possessed.

Sweetly, friendly,

O thou handsome, precious ransom,

Full of graces,

Set and kept in heavenly places.

American composer Morten Lauridsen (b.1943), a National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (1994–2001) and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 40 years. 

According to Lauridsen, his setting of the liturgic text was inspired by the 1633 painting "Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose" by Zurbarán, which has been interpreted as symbolism for the Virgin Mary. He said that his work is meant as "a quiet song of profound inner joy", with music expressing both the mystery of the Incarnation and Mary's tenderness for her child.

Translation:
O great mystery,

and wonderful sacrament,

that animals should see the new-born Lord,

lying in a manger!

Blessed is the Virgin whose womb

was worthy to bear

Christ the Lord.

Alleluia!

Violine: Alice Ramirez, ?

Edward Elgar (1857–1934) is widely regarded as the most significant English composer of the Late Romantic era and a pivotal figure in revitalizing British music on the international stage. He broke a long creative drought in England that had lasted since the Baroque period (following Henry Purcell), ultimately becoming a national cultural icon.

The Snow is one of his best and most popular choral pieces, composed in 1894 at a rather early stage of his career. It was written for female voices with an accompaniment for two violins and a piano. Elgar's wife Caroline Alice Elgar (1848-1920), a published writer and poet, contributed the text to this song, which was published in her epic poem "Isabel Trevithoe" in 1878.

Inspired by folk melodies and words, the Ukrainian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, and teacher Mykola Leontovich (1877-1921) wrote the first version of this song sometime between 1901 and 1916. It was originally a new year's celebration song, which tells a tale of a swallow flying into a household to proclaim the bountiful year that the family will have.  In 1936, American composer, music educator, and choral conductor Peter J. Wilhousky (1902-1978) rearranged the melody with new lyrics for NBC radio network's symphony orchestra and turned it into the popular Christmas song many people know today.

“Maria durch ein' Dornwald ging” is an Advent hymn from the Eichsfeld region that was first published in 1850 and whose melody may date back to the 16th century. Originally a pilgrimage hymn, it was the songbooks of the youth movement in the early 20th century that brought the hymn popularity and led to its transformation into what is now considered a folk-style Advent hymn. 

The choral arrangement by the German choir director and composer Gottfried Wolters (1910–1989) was composed in 1957.

Translation:
Mary walked through a thorn forest,

Kyrie eleison.

Mary walked through a thorn forest,

which had borne no leaves for seven years.

Jesus and Mary.

What did Mary carry beneath her heart?

Kyrie eleison.

A little child without pain,

that is what Mary carried beneath her heart.

Jesus and Mary.

Then the thorns bore roses,

Kyrie eleison.

As the little child was carried through the forest,

the thorns bore roses.

Jesus and Mary.

Percussion: Hannah Aurand, Elsie Smith

Fueled by a passion for combining tradition and innovation, American composer Michael John Trotta (b.1978) creates music that resonates with modern audiences around the world. From Carnegie Hall to cathedrals and concert halls around the world, he creates “elegant, singable music with a strong, spiritual heft” (Choir and Organ Magazine). The text for the hymn Veni, Veni Emmanuel first appears in the 18th century in the Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum (Cologne 1710). It is based on the much older “O” Antiphons which have their origins in the 9th century. When the antiphons are placed in the reverse chronological order the first letter (after the “O”) forms the acrostic ERO CRAS, literally “tomorrow, I will be” translated here as “I will come!” This piece was conceived as a dialogue between the supplicants and the creator, a combination of old and new, juxtaposing a personal longing for something still to come, with the steadfast assurance of something ever-present yet not always seen.

(source: composer's website)

Translation:
O come, o come, the “I am” that is with us

Break the bond of the captive people!

Who mourn in exile

Deprived of the incarnation of the father.

Rejoice! Rejoice! The great “I am”

Will be born for you.

O come, gatherer of all nations,

Come to make all whole,

To save your servants

From their separateness,

O come thou light of life (MorningStar)

To shine on us by your coming,

Dispel the clouds of night,

Drive away the shadows of death.

Wine Glasses: ?

Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) was a celebrated American lyric poet known for her classical simplicity, musicality, and quiet intensity. She made literary history by winning the very first Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1918 for her renowned collection Love Songs (1917). "Stars" is one of Sara Teasdale's most famous lyric poems, celebrated for its vivid imagery and profound sense of cosmic wonder. First published in her acclaimed 1920 collection Flame and Shadow, the poem captures a solitary individual's deep, almost religious reverence while stargazing on a dark night.  

Ērik Ešenvalds (born 1977) is amongst the most sought-after composers working today. Widely performed and recorded, his works span choral, orchestral, stage, and film. Ēriks is a popular speaker, which he often combines with leading masterclasses and conducting. He set the Sara Teasdale's poem to music in 2011 for Salt Lake Vocal Artists / Salt Lake Choral Artists. The composer's favourite tuned wine glasses are a constant presence in the piece, a glistening accompaniment to the glowing simplicity of this vision of ‘beating hearts of fire’ seen overhead on a still, dark night. The wondrousness of a ‘heaven full of stars’ is evoked by a radiant chorale before a repeated oscillation of a pair of chords, adding to the magic, recedes into silence.

(source: composer's website)

Hand bells: ?

"This Endris Night" is a 15th-century English Christmas carol, describing a dialogue between Mother Mary and the new-born baby Jesus. Composer Sarah Quartel (born 1982) is one of Canada’s most internationally celebrated and widely performed living choral composers. Her music is programmed globally, and her commissions have premiered in spaces such as Carnegie Hall, Canterbury Cathedral, and the famed Church of the Rock in Helsinki.

„Bogoroditse Devo“ (Ave Maria), gesungen in kirchenslawischer Sprache, ist der sechste Satz der „Ganznächtlichen Vigil“, die oft als Rachmaninows größter Erfolg gepriesen wird. Sergej Rachmaninow (1873–1943) war ein russischer Komponist, Klaviervirtuose und Dirigent. Auf der Flucht vor der Russischen Revolution emigrierte er 1918 in die USA und verbrachte fortan den Großteil seiner Zeit auf Konzertreisen als Pianist in den USA und Europa. Rachmaninow gilt weithin als einer der besten Pianisten seiner Zeit und als Komponist als einer der letzten großen Vertreter der Romantik in der russischen klassischen Musik.

Translation:
Rejoice, virgin mother of God,

Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.

Blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb,

for you have borne the Savior of our souls

Flute: ?

American folk singer and song writer John Jacob Niles (1892-1980) wrote "I Wonder as I Wander" in 1933. It is based on a melody and text fragments he collected while attending a fundraising meeting in Murphy, North Carolina, held by evangelicals who had been ordered out of town by the police. He stated in his autobiography: "A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached to the automobile. She began to sing. Her clothes were unbelievably dirty and ragged, and she, too, was unwashed. Her ash-blond hair hung down in long skeins. ... But, best of all, she was beautiful, and in her untutored way, she could sing. She smiled as she sang, smiled rather sadly, and sang only a single line of a song." The carol combines the simple Christmas story (Jesus as a child in a manger) with the message that the Savior came for the “poor, ordinary people.” It is particularly known for its questioning tone and its poignant, somewhat somber melody, which is often associated with the Great Depression.  

Ruth Elaine Schram (born 1956) studied music at Lancaster Bible College and Millersville State College, later teaching elementary music in Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1992, she transitioned to full-time composing and arranging work. Her catalog now includes over 2,500 published works with millions of copies sold.

The "Messiah" by Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) is one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music. Two of its popular movements, "Joy to the World" and "For Unto Us a Child is Born" were combined in a signature piece of the a-capella ensemble "Voctave" by Jamey Ray, tenor and sole arranger of the group. Ray is a graduate of Rollins College and New York University and serves as a professor of music at Rollins College since more than 14 years. He is also the choral editor of Excelcia Music Publishing.

Percussion: Hannah Aurand, Elsie Smith

"Personent hodie" is a Christmas carol originally published in the 1582 Finnish song book Piae Cantiones, a volume of 74 Medieval songs with Latin texts.

 Mark Burrows (b. 1971) is a composer and clinician whose works are published by many major houses, including The Lorenz Corporation, Shawnee Press, Abingdon Press, Choristers Guild and Warner Brothers. He is currently the Director of Children’s Ministries at First United Methodist Church – Fort Worth, Texas, where he leads the weekly Children’s Message, a monthly worship service for families called Children First, and directs the 65-voice Youth Choir. Mark received his undergraduate degree in music education from Southern Methodist University, and his graduate degree in conducting from Texas Christian University.

Translation:
Therefore, glory to God in the highest!

Let resound today

the voices of children,

joyfully praising

Him who is born to us,

given by most high God,

and conceived in a virginal womb.

Let resound today

He was born into the world,

wrapped in swaddling clothes,

and laid in a manger

in a stable for animals,

the master of the heavens.

The prince of Hell has lost his spoils.

Three Magi came,

they were bearing gifts,

and sought the little one,

following a star,

to worship him,

and offer him gold, incense, and myrrh.

Therefore, glory

Let all the junior clerics

and also the boys

sing like angels:

"You have come to the world,

I pour out praises to you.

Therefore, glory to God in the highest!"

“Ya Viene La Vieja” is a traditional Spanish Christmas carol, or villancico, that captures the festive spirit and religious significance of the holiday season. The song is a joyful narrative about the arrival of an old lady with gifts, and the journey of the Three Wise Men bringing presents to the newborn Jesus. 

Audrey Snyder (b. 1953) is a professional American composer and arranger. She has received numerous awards and is today regarded as one of the world’s leading choral composers. Her original compositions and arrangements span the entire spectrum of choral music, from medieval and Renaissance transcriptions to contemporary pop.

Translation:
Here comes the old lady with a Christmas bonus,

It seems like too much to her, sshe takes some out,

Tender green vines, Lemon leaves, The Virgin Mary, The Lord's Mother.

Here come the Kings across the sands,

They bring the Child very fine swaddling clothes,

Tender green vines, Lemon leaves, The Virgin Mary, The Lord's Mother.

Here come the Kings from that way

They bring the Child soaked bread and wine,

Tender green vines, Lemon leaves, The Virgin Mary, The Lord's Mother.

"Jingle Bells" is one of the most commonly sung Christmas songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. Greg Gilpin used  Pierpont's original lyrics and the rythmic pattern of his piece to create a new vibrant setting in minor mode. 

Greg Gilpin (born 1964) is a celebrated ASCAP award-winning choral composer and arranger and a highly respected choral conductor. He is known throughout the United States leading performances at New York City’s iconic Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as well as Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. His international appearances include the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, Royal Festival Hall in London, England and Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland. Mr. Gilpin is also a producer and musician in the recording industry and is Director of Educational Choral Publications for Shawnee Press, a distinguished choral publisher.

The Spiritual (Negro/African American spiritual) is a genre of Christian music that emerged from the17th-century American slavery, merging sub-Saharan African cultural traditions with the traumatic, lived experience of bondage. It is a deeply emotional, often improvised, oral tradition of sacred songs that served as coded messages of protest, survival, and faith. "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" is a traditional African-American spiritual song. Among the many different versions of the song, a defining feature is the cumulative structure, with each number (typically up to 12 or 10) accompanied by a biblical reference. Today, many Americans know it as a Christmas carol. 

Paul Caldwell (born 1963) and Sean Ivory (born 1969) are a highly celebrated choral composing and arranging duo renowned for their vibrant, rhythmically driven works that blend spirituals, global music, and modern choral techniques. Their works have become staples in the repertoire of many of the world’s finest ensembles. Their music has been telecast on PBS and A&E and performed at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.

"Let Everything That Hath Breath" is an exuberant celebration set within the traditional gospel style. For many decades, traditional gospel music has been a vital component of preaise and worship for African-Americans.  Whether being performed in a neighborhood church or in a concert hall, gospel music fulfills its purpose to uplift the spirit and hearts of all who hear. The text within this piece is taken from several Psalms and seeks to "Magnify the Lord and exalt His name" through the traditional gospel style. 

Jeffery L. Ames (born 1969) serves as Director of Choral Activities, and is a Full Professor within the School of Music at Belmont University.  With a reputation as a distinguished and well-respected composer and arranger, Dr. Ames’ music has been premiered by the Florida Music Educators Association, the Florida American Choral Directors Association, the Southern Division of ACDA, at National ACDA Conferences, and on the 2017, 2015, 2013, and 2011 telecasts of Christmas at Belmont. His compositions and arrangements are published with Colla Voce Music, Earthsongs, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Walton Music Corporation. Professor Ames holds the Ph.D. in Choral Conducting/Choral Music Education and a Master of Choral Music Education degree from The Florida State University,