photo: Spencer Pope
The Kansas City Chorale presented an exquisite program of carols and seasonal selections Tuesday, Dec. 16 at the 1900 Building in Mission Woods.
Led by their longtime director Charles Bruffy, the Chorale has won multiple Grammy awards over the last two decades and is known internationally for choral excellence.
The concert opened with the choral classic “Carol of the Bells,” arranged by Peter Wilhousky. The singers employed a bell-like clear tone and minimal vibrato, producing a beautifully blended sound. The final “ding dongs” were not quite in sync, but the singers delivered the music with joyful exuberance. Michael Praetorius’ “In Dulci Jubilo” (“In Sweet Rejoicing”) featured crisp German diction and dancelike rhythms. The women of the chorus then surrounded the audience as the chorus sang Alfred Burt’s “Caroling, Caroling.”
The longest work on the program was Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. It was written in April 1942, when Britten returned by ship to his native England from a long visit to the U.S. The composition sets several medieval poems in Middle English that the composer found in a poetry collection and read during his journey. Originally conceived for treble voices and first published in that fashion, Britten later adapted it for mixed voices, and this was the version that was performed.
With the women singers still on the sides of the audience, they began the work as Britten conceived it—a processional Gregorian chant from Christmas Vespers, “Hodie Christus natus est” (“Today Christ is born.”) The men singers joined in the closing “Alleluia.” The work features a harp accompaniment, which was ably played by Tabitha Reist Steiner. From the joyful, crisp tempo of the “Wolcum Yole!” to the gentle lullaby “Balulalow,” the Chorale delivered impressive dynamics.
Several soloists deserve mention for their work. Mezzo-soprano Julia Scozzafava’s rich tone was marvelous in the slightly dissonant “That Yongë Child,” sung over a recurrent harp figure. Soprano Lindsey Lang and tenor Frank Fleschner blended beautifully in “In Freezing Winter Night,” and soprano Ariel Morris and mezzo-soprano Paula Brekken sang the hopeful “Spring Carol.” Soprano Evelyn Wouters sang the solo in “Balulalow.”
An absolute highlight in the concert was Reist Steiner’s solo harp interlude at the center of Britten’s work. The music is based on the opening plainchant, and she played expertly, with great sensitivity and musicality. After the exciting “Deo Gracias” (“Thanks be to God”), the work ended with the “Hodie Christus natus est” chant, again begun by the women and joined by the men at the end.
The remainder of the concert included lovely arrangements of traditional carols and songs. One of the highpoints of the concert was Abbie Betinas’ splendid arrangement of Gustav Holst’s “In the Bleak Midwinter,” a setting of the poem by Christina Rossetti. Mezzo-soprano Sarah Stevens displayed a soft and lovely voice in the opening verse. A gentle choral interlude on the text “snow on snow” suggested the piling of snow. The final verse featured the chorus humming the melody while sopranos Melanie Melcher and Rachel Field responded with beautiful solo responses above the choral texture.
Four arrangements of traditional works by Omaha composer Jackson Berkey were lovely and well performed, but their vocal style was very similar: a mixture of traditional phrases and non-traditional material along with mixed and unexpected changes in meter. Some differences in color were provided by the addition of harp and light percussion. One lovely moment came near the end of “Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus,” when Reist Steiner played a beautiful interpolation of “Away in a Manger.”
The chorus’ German diction was crisp and effective in two works—“Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” (“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”) and the classic Norman Luboff arrangement of “Still, Still, Still.” The former featured alternating verses by Michael Praetorius and Melchior Vulpius (Praetorius won). The Luboff version of the Austrian carol is usually sung in English, and the original German text was especially welcome. Bruffy expressively employed rubato technique to stretch the tempo.
Baritone Oliver Hutchison was the soloist for an arrangement of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and Jack Pearson was featured in “O Tannenbaum.” A harmonically complex version of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by Benedict Sheehan was beautifully sung with confidence and fervor. As an encore, the Chorale and soprano soloist Ariel Morris sang one of the most lyrical and touching renditions of “Silent Night” I have ever heard.
The performance was a bit long—with no intermission, it clocked in at 100 minutes. Conductor Bruffy was aware of the fact and quipped “it didn’t look this long on paper,” to the delight of the audience.
For more information on upcoming concerts of the Kansas City Chorale, visit www.kcchorale.org/.
Reviewed Tuesday, December 16, 2025
