CATHEDRAL CHOIR CONCERT SERIES 
December 23, 2026 |  12:15 PM 
The Madeleine Choir School 

Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols is a masterpiece composed on board a ship during a perilous five-week crossing of the North Atlantic during World War II as Britten returned to England from the United States in 1942. It is an unusual setting for treble voices and harp, with “carols” largely the product of anonymous writers of the 15th and 16th centuries. The work opens and closes with the choir processing to plainsong, the Hodie chant sung for centuries at Vespers on Christmas Eve, with carol settings in-between telling traditional stories surrounding the birth of Christ.​