Whether you’re a lifelong choral enthusiast or new to the genre, “A John Rutter Christmas” offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the beauty of live music, surrounded by a community of fellow music lovers. With soaring harmony, piano, strings, brass, and organ, this concert will surely delight the whole family.

The program will include numerous carols written by Sir John Rutter, an internationally recognized English composer, and will feature his Gloria as the concert’s centerpiece. Choir students from Sharpstein Elementary School will join the WWCS singers for part of the concert.

The Gloria, commissioned by the Voices of Mel Olson, a choir from Omaha, Nebraska, was written in 1974. The piece is structured into three movements, each corresponding to a section of the Latin text of the Roman Catholic liturgy’s Ordinary of the Mass: proclamatory, prayerful, and joyfully affirmative. Rutter based the melody of his piece on a Gregorian chant associated with the text. The piece is scored for choir, strings, brass, percussion, and organ. The music is simple and direct in style, with the instrumentalists playing an important role as equal partners with the voices.