A King’s Christmas returns on December 7, 2025 with the combined forces of the University of King’s College Chapel Choir and the King’s Chorus! Joined by a chamber orchestra, the choirs will perform three large-scale choral works of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The performance will begin with contemporary minimalist composer Arvo Pärt’s Seven Magnificat Antiphons—the ‘O Antiphons’ traditionally sung in the seven days leading up to Christmas Eve. Composed in 1988, each of the seven unaccompanied movements has its own character, and offers a unique take on the German translation of a familiar text heard, prayed, and sung in churches around the world.
Next on the program is Johann Sebastian Bach’s renowned Advent Cantata no. 61, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. One of over 200 cantatas that Bach composed nearly every week while serving as Kapellmeister in Leipzig, this cantata is based on what was, at the time, a well-known chorale melody of the same name. Unlike the majority of his other cantatas, Bach builds the fifth and final movement around an additional and equally well-known Advent chorale theme, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern. This final movement brings the glorious cantata to a close, while introducing new, yet familiar material.
The concert will conclude with 19th-century French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ Oratoire de Noël. This oratorio, belonging to the same tradition as Bach’s cantatas, was composed while Saint-Saëns was serving as an organist at Église de la Madeleine in Paris. Saint-Saëns characterized the work as having been composed ‘in the style of J. S. Bach’, and like the great German composer, he wrote the work under similar time constraints, completing it just ten days before its premiere on Christmas Eve, 1858. This majestic work epitomizes the sublime quality of 19th-century French choral and orchestral music.
Come and hear three choral masterworks of the Advent and Christmas seasons, performed by the King’s College Chapel Choir and the King’s Chorus in their first-ever performance together!
Tickets are $5-$45
Available for purchase at the King’s Co-op Bookstore
