Christmas Music
In the Hills
Almost as soon as there was Christmas, there was Christmas music. Music associated with the holiday is thought to have originated in 4th-century Rome in Latin-language when hymns such as Veni redemptory gentium tripped off the tongues of priests, nuns and monks.
Only 1,000 years later, the genre had become permanently ensconced in the celebration of Christmas, with English Chaplain John Awdley recording 25 caroles of Cristemas. By the 16th and 17th century, carols still sung to this day, such as God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, had entered the lexicon.
Handel’s Messiah, a holiday staple, and many others were composed by great musicians, while others, like the equally beloved Silent Night, have more humble origins. Whatever their origin, sacred or secular, music is interwoven in the Christmas tradition.
It is no less so in 2025 than it was in 400AD. This year residents of the tristate region have many venues to choose from as they celebrate a modern Yuletide season. Some of those events, such as programs featuring Handel’s Messiah and the Berkshire Bach Society’s highly popular New Year’s performance of the Six Brandenburg Concerti, have deep roots in the region while others are new arrivals. Here is a sampling of musical offerings in the region in the last weeks of December.
The 55-voice Stockbridge Festival Chorus will present its annual Christmas concert Saturday, December 13th, at 3PM at the First Congregational Church of Stockbridge. Tracy Wilson will direct the singers in a performance of John Rutter’s Magnificat and several carols by Bob Chilcott and John Gardner.
The Magnificat is a 40-minute, seven-movement work sung in Latin and English. The chorus will be accompanied by Ed Lawrence on organ, Aaron Likness on piano, guest soprano soloist Jordan Rose Lee, Bailey Forfa on timpani and Hugo Pizarro-Gundelfinger on percussion. Admission is a $20 donation at the door for adults, $10 for members of local community choruses and free for persons age 18 and under.
Berkshire Lyric presents In Dulci Jubilo the second of three 2025 Christmas concerts on Sunday December 14th, at 3PM at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street in Great Barrington MA. The program includes traditional and contemporary a cappella carols by Bach, Rachmaninoff, Lauridsen, Randall Thompson, the Berkshire’s Charlie Fitzhugh and others.
The 85-voice Berkshire Lyric Chorus will be joined by Melodious Accord, a women’s ensemble, and soloists Steve Hassmer and John Demler. Tickets are $35 and will be sold at the door or in advance through the website www.BerkshireLyric.org.
On December 20th at 4PM Berkshire Lyric returns with The Most Wonderful Time of the Year at the Stockbridge Congregational Church on Main Street in Stockbridge. The concert of traditional and contemporary carols will also include well-known standards from the American holiday songbook. The Lyric Children’s Chorus will welcome a visit from Santa Claus at this old-fashioned holiday event geared for children of all ages.
Tickets are $20 and will be sold at the door with children and students ages 18 and younger admitted for free.
Pittsfield MA chimes in with The Wizards of Winter, Saturday December 20th at the Colonial Theater, 111 South Street. The holiday rock opera returns for a third year at the theater, lighting up the stage with The Christmas Dream, a theatrical musical journey featuring former members of legendary rock bands such as The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Def Leppard, Rainbow, Alice Cooper, Blue Öyster Cult and Trixter as well as seasoned Broadway and theater veterans. Tickets are $64
The BSO Holiday Brass will bring its magic to the Berkshires with a program of cheerful and uplifting seasonal music December 19th at 7PM at Tanglewood in Lenox MA. There will be festive decorations, tasty treats, great music, and a special surprise or two. Tickets are $56.99.
The Berkshires will close out the holiday season with Bach at New Year’s: The Six Brandenburg' Concerti at 6PM on New Year’s Eve at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.
Classical New England Public Media and the Berkshire Bach Society will present the program, an event that has been a holiday tradition since 1993. Nine-time Grammy winner and artistic director Eugene Drucker leads the Berkshire Bach Ensemble in all six of Bach’s iconic concerti. Tickets can be obtained at 413-528-0100 or through boxoffice@mahaiwe.org.
Moving to the Connecticut side the border there is an equally intriguing potpourri of offerings. The serene and restorative White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield will offer a free program on Saturday, December 13th at 2PM in the Carriage House.
The Jerrod Cattey Trio, featuring Darren Litzie on piano, Kevin Smith on bass and Jerrod Cattey on drums, transport listeners straight into the world of Peanuts offering a mix of nostalgia and jazz in a performance of the 1965 holiday classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Cash donations or new warm weather accessories (hats, gloves, scarves, socks) to be donated to F. I. S. H. of Northwestern Connecticut, will be welcomed. Pre-registration is required.
Chorus Angelicus & Gaudeamus are among the most popular holiday performers in Litchfield County. The famed children’s choir and its adult counterpart will perform carols, seasonal songs along and traditional carols at two venues in December under the direction of Gabriel Löfvall with Chion Wolf narrating.
Programs will be offered at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington, Sunday, December 14th, at 4PM and at Church of Christ Congregational, Norfolk: Saturday, December 20 at 4PM. Tickets begin at $35 with students admitted for $20.
Nearby Litchfield has Twas in the Moon of Wintertime an Entwyned Early Music Christmas a live performance of beloved carols from around the world, on Sunday, December 14th at 7PM at the Oliver Wolcott Library.
Dee Hansen, Neil Humphreys and Eric Hansen, collectively known as Entwyned, will visit OWL to share music featuring 18th- and 19th-century carols such as What Child is This, Good King Wenceslas and Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella. Playing historic instruments, they will also perform lesser-known pieces from the 13th through the 18th centuries. Register online or watch the event on Zoom.
Kent will be busy this weekend with back-to-back concerts staged from Friday, December 12th through Sunday, December 13th.
The St. Andrew’s Church Music in the Nave series brings back its popular Handel’s Messiah Sing-In, slated this year for 8PM on Friday, December 12th. Three of the four singers from last year—mezzo Meredith Ziegler, tenor Paul Patinka, bass-baritone Greg Flower—will return and James Sinclair, artistic director of Orchestra New England, will again conduct the Sherman Chamber Ensemble and the guest soloists. Soprano Juliet Schlefer, heard in last season’s Mozart in May, will fill the fourth slot, making her Messiah debut.
As always, audience members are invited to sing the choral parts and will be provided scores. To make the holiday tradition accessible to all, the organizers have kept ticket prices at $25 for adults and free for students.
St. Andrew’s is located 1 North Main Street. Tickets are available online and at the door. For more information, call 860-927-3480, email office.sa.kent@gmail.com or click here
The Kent Singers will offer their annual yuletide concert, All this Time,their homage to the Festival of Lessons and Carols, on December 13th and 14th at 3PM also at St. Andrew’s Church.
The Kent Singers were founded by Jon Lafleur in 1973 and give concerts in New Milford, Kent and Washington. Tickets are $20 and will be available at the door. Children 12 and younger are admitted free. St. Andrew’s is wheelchair accessible via the ramp on North Main Street.
New York State does not lag behind in its presentation of seasonal music. Handel’s Messiah will be presented by Hudson River Valley Baroque at the First Presbyterian Church of Hudson, 369 Warren Street on December 20th at 4PM.
Hudson River Valley Baroque is collaborating with Montreal's Baroque Orchestra L'Harmonie des saisons and the Burlington Baroque Festival Singers. The baroque orchestra, festival chorus and soloists are all directed by Juno Award-winning conductor and recording producer Eric Milnes. For tickets, click here.
Down in Rhinebeck the Rhinebeck Choral Club, a community choir, is going to Jazz Up the Holidays Saturday and Sunday, December 13th, at 7PM and Sunday, December 14th at 3PM at the Rhinebeck Reformed Church 6368 Mill Street.
Founded in 1945, the Rhinebeck Choral Club performs a variety of music including secular, sacred, spirituals, jazz and more. The holiday standard, Christmas Time is Here along with jazz arrangements of We Three Kings, Angels We Have Heard on High and Frosty the Snowman are just a few of the songs that will bring an upbeat and festive holiday mood. The Red Hook High School Jazz Ensemble will be guest artists.
