Bill Bullock said the Cantus Columbus Christmas concert, “Message of the Season -- Music of the Masters” sticks to the same Christmas message every year but for audience members “there’s always something new” to enjoy.
This year’s concert includes a woodwind quintet and organ. Sue Mitchell-Wallace will play organ. The woodwind quintet features Columbus State University Schwob School of Music professors Susan Tomkiewicz, oboe; Lisa Oberlander, clarinet; Ronald Wirt, bassoon; Jason Eklund, horn; and Columbus Symphony Orchestra principal flutist, James Zellers.
Bullock’s wife, Janie Lee, provides the piano accompaniment.
Founded in 2000, Cantus Columbus, the only professional chorus in town, features 22 singers. Its Christmas concert routinely sells out. So Bullock recommends that those who want to see the show call right away to reserve a seat.
This year, Bullock said he won’t feature vocal soloists, but each section will be featured with each of the instruments.
This annual concert is patterned after the late Robert Shaw’s (of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) Christmas Eve radio broadcasts that featured the Collegiate Chorus and the CBS Symphony Orchestra. There are no pauses between the musical numbers and there is no intermission.
CANTUS COLUMBUS PROGRAM
Prelude: Gordon Jacob’s “Elegiac Prelude,” piano, woodwind quintet
Prophecy and Preparation: “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” anonymous, featuring the chorus; “How Fair the Morning Star Doth Shine,” anonymous, bassoon, organ, women’s chorus; “Prepare the Way, O Zion,” anonymous, piano, woodwind quintet; “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” anonymous, clarinet, organ, chorus; Daniel Pinkham’s “The Salutation of Gabriel,” featuring horn, organ; “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” anonymous, full ensemble, audience
Birth and Infancy: “O That Birth, For Ever Blessed,” anonymous, the chorus; Lambert de Sayve’s “Hodie Christus natus est,” chorus, woodwind quintet; Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s “Berceuse Mignonne” or “Tender Lullaby,” piano, organ; Johann Ebeling’s “All My Heart This Night Rejoices,” the chorus; Amy Beach’s “Pastorale, Opus 151,” woodwind quintet; Louis-Claude Daquin’s “Noel We Sing,” organ, chorus; traditional Irish song “Good People All, This Christmastime,” flute, piano, chorus; Felix Mendelssohn’s “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” full ensemble, audience
Epiphany and Adoration: “O Ye Heights of Heav’n Adore Him!,” anonymous, chorus; Anders Ohrwall’s “Three Wise Men,” chorus, flute, clarinet, bassoon, piano, percussion; Sergey Lyapunov’s “Procession of the Magi,” woodwind quintet, piano, organ; Edmund Rubbra’s “Star of the Mystic East, Opus 81,” chorus; Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s “Praise Be to You, Jesus Christ, Opus 65, No. 6,” woodwind quintet; “The First ‘Nowell!’,” anonymous, full ensemble, audience
Departure and Aspiration: “Who Is’t Fears the Wise Men’s Story?,” anonymous, chorus; Ned Rorem’s “The Flight Into Egypt,” organ; “Unto Us a Boy Was Born,” anonymous, chorus, piano, oboe, horn; Edmund Rubbra’s “Elegy,” oboe, piano; “The Snow Lay on the Ground,” anonymous, chorus, woodwind quintet; Eric Thiman, “I Sing the Birth,” chorus, organ; “Joy to the World!,” anonymous, full ensemble, audience
