Holiday choral traditions worldwide are rooted in spreading good cheer

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Or at least that’s how holiday concertgoers are supposed to feel after leaving yuletide-themed choral performances. Warm and fuzzy, maybe a bit more musically enlightened than they were upon entry, but most of all, aglow with the season’s spirit.

This year at Symphony Center, there’s no shortage of options to fit that bill. The Vienna Boys Choir swings through with its holiday program on Nov. 30, followed by the a cappella ensemble Chanticleer on Dec. 10 and then the CSO’s own beloved annual “Merry, Merry Chicago!” packs Orchestra Hall from Dec. 18-23.

From the sacred to the secular, plus a smattering of lesser-known pieces to keep things fresh — there’s almost certainly something for everyone, no matter what age or musical background.

It all starts with selecting repertoire, which ideally strikes a balance between comfortingly familiar and engagingly exotic. Of course, plenty of songs are repeated from year to year because audiences come to expect them. Just as Billy Joel can’t leave the stage without playing “Piano Man,” Chanticleer always starts with Renaissance tunes, then sings Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria” after the intermission and ends with a medley of spirituals. Likewise, the Chicago Symphony always performs “Sleigh Ride!” before accompanying the Chicago Symphony Chorus in a medley of popular holiday hits.

“I personally always try to push the [musical] envelope a little bit,” says Tim Keeler, Chanticleer’s music director. “Instead of recycling music every year, I like to think of it as recycling a mood or a feeling, so the music can change. But there’s a very specific feeling that you get from holiday music. And I think that is something that we try to replicate every year, whether that’s nostalgia or a sort of community. It can even be very specific harmonic emotions that people associate with the holiday.”

“There’s a very specific feeling that you get from holiday music. That is something that we try to replicate every year, whether that’s nostalgia or a sort of community.” — Tim Keeler of Chanticleer

Tina Breckwoldt, press officer and official historian for the Vienna Boys Choir, says the group has few holiday traditions, musically speaking. Chapel concerts during Advent season always include a cappella pieces, mostly from the Renaissance, but it’s largely about “spreading good cheer.”

“There is a wealth of holiday music, both ancient and modern, and we like to mix old and new,” Breckwoldt says. “The most important aspect is the audience: What are their expectations, what do they want to hear? The repertoire depends, obviously, on where we are. We’ll bring songs from Vienna and Austria, of course, but also will sing something from the host country; like a gift of song, if you will. The Vienna Boys Choir has been on the road since 1926, and since then, we’ve been on more than 1,000 tours in 100 different countries. And we have been collecting songs everywhere, so the repertoire has been growing.”

Cheryl Frazes Hill (inset photo below) began with the Chicago Symphony Chorus in 1976 as a singer. For many decades now, she has served as the group’s associate director. Her tenure began under legendary Chicago Symphony Chorus founder Margaret Hillis and continued under the expert leadership of Duain Wolfe, who retired in 2022 after 28 seasons.

“Not only are you trying to appeal to adults who have not necessarily attended classical performances before, but you’ve got a wide age span, because many people like to bring their children to these programs,” Frazes Hill says of holiday concerts. “And so you have to balance a program that engages children and keeps them entertained, because obviously you want to inspire them to become excited about their future as attendees to classical symphonies. At the same time, you want to make sure that there is enough substance to the repertoire to really represent what we do as classical artists. And that’s a fine dance as you do that kind of programming.”

One thing that has changed significantly over the years, Frazes Hill says, is the visual component of holiday concerts. Whereas back in the day, before smartphones and streaming video and a million other forms of entertainment arrived to steal people’s time and attention, it’s no longer sufficient to plunk audiences in front of a silent conductor who focuses solely on his or her performers.

In light of the fact that “we’ve become such visual consumers,” Frazes Hill explains (conductor Alastair Willis will lead this year’s CSO performances), now speak directly to audiences and illuminate the repertoire. And while there is no fancy multimedia aspect or dazzling light shows (that goes for the CSO, as well as Chanticleer and the Vienna Boys Choir), the hall is always bedecked in holiday splendor, which adds to the over-all mood and helps keep concertgoers in the moment. Depending on the song, people are also encouraged to sing along.

“I sit in the audience during the shows, and I’m always impressed with how people have no inhibitions,” Frazes Hill says. “They will just sing out and enjoy it. And, of course, those are the songs that get the greatest applause, because the people have been the performers.”

Even when the audience isn’t allowed to sing, there’s still a strong connection to the performers. “Everybody can sing,” Keeler says. “Whether they understand music or not, when you hear somebody yell, for instance, everybody knows that sensation. And so, when you see somebody really singing, even if you’re not a singer, you know what that feels like. You know that intensity.”

If the main goal of these holiday outings is spreading good cheer (and, of course, selling lots of tickets), an underlying goal is always to attract new audience members to other types of performances — choral or purely orchestral. In that way, because holiday shows aren’t so “buttoned-up,” as Frazes Hill puts it, they’re a sort of gateway to other programs throughout the season. 

“We want people to come in hoping they have a good time,” she says, “and we want them to leave knowing that they did.”