Sponsor Concert Selections and Guest Artists
Carols and Lullabies: A Holiday Choral Concert
December 13 & 14, 2025
Descriptions of choral works on our upcoming concert program and information about our guest artists may be found below.
Your gift of $500 or more for each choral piece ($1000 for a major work) and guest artist of your choice includes your name (or anonymous attribution) and an optional dedication of approximately fifteen words or less in our printed concert program. Note that more than one party may sponsor any selection. Your generosity enables us to continue offering choral music to our community at a high level and to collaborate with talented artists from the Puget Sound region. We are grateful for your support.
To jump to Guest Artists only, tap here.
The deadline to be included in the print program is Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
Use any button on this page to sponsor choral selections and guest artists. You will be asked for specific information at another page.
Choral Selections (alphabetical by title) and Guest Artists for Sponsorship
Our December 2025 concert program features music from several cultures, unified under our concert theme, “Carols and Lullabies: A Holiday Choral Concert.” Descriptions of choral pieces as well as our namesake major work, Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest, are given below, along with sample recordings.
Before the Song Was Done (Sarah Quartel)
Sarah Quartel, a leading choral composer of her generation, sensitively weaves a text by Sara Teasdale for choir and piano with the flowing sounds of compound meter—a musical device often associated with a gentle rocking motion. In this poem, the Christ-child is serenaded by shepherds, kings, and the host of heaven, falling asleep “before the song was done.” The words were simply too perfect for our concert theme of "Carols and Lullabies” to pass by! Published in 2023, this new carol is sure to gain popularity for years to come.
Candle Blessings (David Ludwig)
“Candle Blessings” is from the Hanukkah Cantata of David Ludwig, a multi-movement choral work with instruments and narration commissioned by the Philadelphia Music Project for Choral Arts Philadelphia. This selection from the larger work is for sopranos and altos, a capella. Ludwig incorporates a beautiful, serene, chantlike melody for the beloved Hanukkah prayers, evoking a sense of wonder.
Carols and Lullabies (Conrad Susa)
Conrad Susa’s magnificent Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest was commissioned by legendary Minnesota-based choral conductor Phillip Brunelle as the New World’s companion piece to Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. NWRS most recently presented this cycle of eleven carols in 2015, and we are delighted to reintroduce them to you as part of our 25th anniversary season. The complete work of eleven carols will be performed, predominantly in Spanish with some carols and portions in English. The work achieves a stunning sense of place and atmosphere through the use of harp, marimba, and guitar. To sponsor guest artists, tap here to jump to the next section.
Note: The video here is the first in a playlist. The first eleven pieces in the playlist comprise Carols and Lullabies. The video will likely cycle to the next movement automatically. Or, you may access the playlist by tapping “Watch on YouTube.”
Our featured guest artists are listed below for sponsorship (use any button on this page):
Elizabeth Brown, guitar (learn more)
Scott Fry, marimba (learn more)
Elizabeth Landis, harp (learn more)
Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King (Moses Hogan)
Moses Hogan (1957-2023) was among the most esteemed composer-arrangers of the African American spiritual and arguably the foremost caretaker of this art form’s legacy during his career. He adapts “Go Tell It on the Mountain” with original words and music (and a nod to other carols) in “Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King.” This selection, full of joy and driving energy, concludes our December program.
I Wonder as I Wander (arr. Kyle S. Haugen)
NWRS Artistic Director Kyle Haugen sets this wistful American carol for tenor and bass voices with piano accompaniment and cello soloist. The piece is part of an anthology collecting more than a dozen composers, published as the St. Olaf Choirbook for Men.
This setting evokes a sense of steady searching as the piano accompaniment drives forward the poem’s protagonist, until a sudden stop occurs. The cello provides musical commentary—virtuosic at times—for inner contemplation the protagonist’s words suggest, employing nearly the entire range of the instrument.
This selection features Matthew Kelzenberg, cello (learn more). To sponsor this guest artist, use any button on this page.
Shlof, Mayn Fegele (arr. Ryan Nowlin)
This Yiddish lullaby, adapted by composer Ryan Nowlin with portions in English, is a crossover from non-sacred repertoire that wonderfully complements our program and its lullabies from around the world. The words can be traced to Odessa, and the melody originated in Russia. This setting features a piano accompaniment and soprano solo. Our program pairs this selection with the Austrian carol-lullaby, “Still, Still, Still.”
Silent Night (arr. Matthew Culloton)
What holiday program dedicated to the season’s carols and lullabies could be complete without “Silent Night,” the most famous carol-lullaby of them all? Composed hastily one Christmas Eve in Austria when the organ was broken, this carol is perhaps the most widely known in the world. NWRS will present this recent choral setting, featuring harp and flute.
This selection features Elizabeth Landis, harp (learn more), and Tracy Doyle, flute (learn more). To sponsor a guest artist, use any button on this page.
Still, Still, Still (arr. Norman Luboff)
“Still, Still, Still” is a 19th-century carol-lullaby featuring a melody from Salzburg, Austria. This setting is by Norman Luboff, who rose to fame in the middle of the 20th century through radio, television, and recordings. This piece is a study in simplicity (difficult for the composer to achieve!) as it evokes a music box in the piano accompaniment yet retains a sense of the profound or divine. In the 1990’s, the group Mannheim Steamroller covered Luboff’s arrangement, introducing it to a new generation.
Note: This is an a capella recording; NWRS will present the piece with the arranger’s original piano accompaniment.
Guest Artists for Sponsorship
Since its founding twenty-five years ago, Northwest Repertory Singers has been committed to frequent collaborations with guest artists from the Puget Sound region. This December we warmly welcome these artists:
*Elizabeth Brown, guitar (learn more)
Tracy Doyle, flute (learn more)
*Scott Fry, marimba (learn more)
Matthew Kelzenberg, cello (learn more)
*Elizabeth Landis, harp (learn more)
*featured in Carols and Lullabies