Karl Jenkins: new Christmas collection and concerts
Christmas with Karl Jenkins has recently been published by Boosey & Hawkes, partnering Decca’s new recording released on 27 November and a series of UK concerts conducted by the composer in December.
Karl Jenkins celebrates Christmas with new releases and a series of festive concerts at major UK venues. Boosey & Hawkes has released a new vocal score, Christmas with Karl Jenkins, collecting together traditional carols from England, Germany, France, Spain, USA and the Caribbean alongside original compositions by Jenkins celebrating different aspects of Christmastide – winter, the sleeping child, tidings of peace and thanksgiving.
The new collection is drawn from Jenkins' album combining Joy to the World and Stella natalis, released in 2009. A bonus number is Happy Christmas, Adiemus, his legendary Adiemus newly gift-wrapped for Christmas. Carol Barratt’s text forms a musical greetings card celebrating holly, ivy and mistletoe, Santa and Rudolph in the snow, sleigh bells and Christmas pudding. These fresh and vibrant arrangements by Karl Jenkins are scored for soprano solo, mixed chorus with trumpet, keyboards, percussion and string orchestra. The ensemble materials for performance are available on hire.
> Buy the Christmas with Karl Jenkins score
Decca releases its new recording of Christmas with Karl Jenkins on 27 November, the latest addition to its series of best-selling Jenkins albums. Performers on the original recording include soprano Kate Royal and trumpeter Alison Balsom with choirs including Tenebrae and the Adiemus Singers. In addition to the selections from Stella natalis and Joy to the World and the new arrangement Happy Christmas, Adiemus, the recording features Jenkins favourites linked to the Christmas themes of peace, goodwill, compassion and new beginnings, including Pie Jesu from Requiem, Healing Light from The Peacemakers and The Dove containing the line ‘Dove of Peace, spread your wings and fly, bringing peace to all’.
Karl Jenkins conducts a series of Christmas concerts in the run up to Christmas, travelling from Birmingham’s Symphony Hall (20 December) to Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall (22 December) and London’s Barbican Hall (23 December). Alongside festive carols including Silent Night, In Dulci Jubilo and The First Nowell, the concert programme also features a beautiful selection of Jenkins’ most celebrated music, including Benedictus from The Armed Man, Palladio and Healing Light from The Peacemakers. Performers include soprano Lucy Crowe, trumpeter Philip Cobb, percussionist Felix Higginbottom, the Manchester Concert Orchestra and the London Concert Orchestra, joined in London by the Crouch End Festival Chorus. All three concerts are presented by John Suchet with the composer on the rostrum.
The New Year brings the annual Karl Jenkins concert presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (18 January). The event at Carnegie Hall is a tribute to the late Jonathan Griffith who did so much to promote Jenkins’s music at concerts in New York. The programme features Palladio Reimagined, Gloria and The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace with conducting honours shared between Marie Bucoy-Calavan, Francisco J. Núñez and the composer himself.
> Visit the Carnegie Hall website