Join us on December 12 and 19 for the world premiere of Love Came Down at Christmas (2021), an original composition by our own Director of Music, Mr. James Kennerley. The title of this year's concert, Love Came Down: Christmas in Harvard Square, takes its name from this debut piece. Join us to hear what is sure to be your new favorite Christmas carol!
Love Came Down: Christmas in Harvard Square features several of Kennerley’s carol arrangements for choir, brass, and percussion, as well as an original work. “As a composer and arranger, Christmas really is the most exciting time. The familiarity of the melodies and texts give us the inspiration to rearrange them while still maintaining an element of audience familiarity that people cherish at this time of year.” Kennerley studied composition at Cambridge University in the UK, and his compositions have been performed around the world. “For this year’s carol composition selections, I sought a sense of emotional buy-in from the choristers by tasking them to select the text that I then set to music. This is a very personal part of the process, as composers will generally embrace lyrics that particularly speak to them. Fortunately, the boys selected a beautiful poem, “Love came down at Christmas” by English Poet Christina Rosetti. Now I must get to work and write it!”