Christmas Sing-Along included at Northwest Choral’s Dec. 18 concert
Northwest Choral Society’s 59th annual Christmas concert will be at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14, at. St. Raymond de Penafort Church in Mount Prospect.
Titled “A Northwest Christmas,” the concert program includes choral masterworks of the season, as well as familiar carols, sing-alongs, and other audience Christmas favorites. NWCS’ Artistic Director Thomas Colao will conduct and collaborative pianist Lori Lyn Mackie will accompany the chorus.
The origins of the song “Go Where I Send Thee” are uncertain; however, its nearest known relative is the English folk song “The Twelve Apostles.” Parallel features in the two songs’ cumulative structure and lyrics (including to 12 loosely biblical references to Isaiah 6:8) make this connection apparent. While “The Twelve Apostles” began appearing in English folk song collections in the mid-eighteen hundreds, the song’s origins likely span back much further.
In 1908 in Gloucestershire, England, composer Percy Grainger used a phonogram to capture the earliest known sound recordings of “The Twelve Apostles.” From 1908 to 1917, folklorist Cecil Sharp transcribed multiple versions of “The Twelve Apostles” in Appalachia, providing evidence of the song’s dissemination into the American South.
In 1934, folklorists John Avery Lomax and Alan Lomax traveled to Bellwood Labor Camp in Atlanta, Georgia. Sung by an unidentified group of African American convicts, the trip produced the earliest known version of the tune to be recorded in North America. “Children, Go Where I Send Thee” became further distanced from its English ancestor with The Golden Gate Quartet’s 1937 commercial recording of the song.
While the Golden Gate Quartet was largely responsible for popularizing the song, there have been many contemporary versions, including the Beatles, the Weavers, Johnny Cash, Natalie Merchant, the Cabbage Patch Kids, Woody Guthrie, Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Kingston Trio, Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Tabernacle Choir, Hall and Oates, REO Speedwagon, Neil Diamond and many more.
The Northwest Choral Society will sing “Go Where I Send Thee” as arranged by Artistic Director Thomas Colao.
The origin of “We wish you a Merry Christmas (… and a Happy New Year)” probably lies in the English tradition wherein wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve, such as “figgy pudding” that was very much like modern-day Christmas puddings.
“Lux Aurumque” (“Light and Gold”) is a Christmas composition by Eric Whitacre, based on a poem of the same name by Edward Esch and translated into Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri, which originally read “Light, warm and heavy as pure gold, and the angels sing softly to the new born babe.”
Leroy Anderson began writing the instrumental version of “Sleigh Ride” in 1946, but did not finish it until 1948. Lyrics were added by Mitchell Parish in 1950. Another traditional holiday favorite is “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas,” originally recorded by both Perry Como and Bing Crosby in 1951, shortly after it was written by Meredith Willson.
Other music included in A Northwest Christmas concert — some of which will be audience sing-along — include “Sing We Now of Christmas,” “Ding Dong! Merrily on High,” “In the Bleak Midwinter” and John Rutter’s classic “What Sweeter Music.”
Tickets for A Northwest Christmas concert are $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors and can be purchased online at nwchoralsociety.org, by calling (224) 585-9127, or an hour before the concert at St. Raymond de Penafort Church, at the corner of Elmhurst Avenue and Lincoln Street in Mount Prospect.
NWCS concludes its 2025-26 concert season on Sunday, May 3, at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, with a program of works by 20th-century English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, featuring his “Five Mystical Songs” for strings, chorus, and baritone soloist, as well as the hauntingly beautiful “Mass in G minor” for unaccompanied double choir. Rehearsals for NWCS’ next session begins on Feb. 3, 2026.
NWCS’ concert programs are sponsored in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
Founded in 1965, the Northwest Choral Society is a nonprofit organization that promotes and encourages the appreciation, understanding and performance of a wide variety of outstanding choral literature. Its adult membership resides in the greater Chicago area.
The Northwest Choral Society invites experienced singers to audition to join the organization. Basses, tenors, altos and sopranos with previous choral experience and at least 17 years of age can obtain additional information about the Northwest Choral Society at nwchoralsociety.org.