The Dessoff Choirs, Malcolm J. Merriweather, music director, ushers in the winter holidays with a rare performance of MargaretBonds’ The Ballad of the Brown King. This holiday cantata, written in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., features a text by Langston Hughes and focuses on Balthazar, one of the Three Kings. The program also includes seasonal carols, a work by Michael T. Roberts incorporating Whitman texts, and concludes with Dessoff’s traditional communal singing of Silent Night by candlelight and the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah.

3:15 pm pre-concert talk by Dr. Ashley Jackson – Margaret Bonds and the Ballad of the Brown King

4:00 pm concert

Adam lay-y-bounden                                     Howard Skempton (b. 1947)
O come all ye faithful                                     John Francis Wade (1711-1786), Arr. David Willcocks (b. 1919-2015)
Lux arumque                                                   Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)
Ave Maria                                                       Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Spaseniye sodelal                                          Pavel Chesnokov (1877-1944)
To Soar in Freedom and in Fullness of Power           Michael T. Roberts (b. 1978)
Hark the herald angels sing                           Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) arr. Daniel Fortune and Malcolm J. Merriweather
The Ballad of the Brown King                                    Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)
Silent night                                                      Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863)
Hallelujah from Messiah                                         George Friderick Handel (1685-1759)

Tickets: $20-40 in advance, $25-45 at door
Purchase at dessoff.org or at the door.