Lawrence Children's Choir: Sing We Now of Christmas
The Lawrence Children's Choir performs "Gaudete! Gaudete!" from their new Christmas CD, "Sing We Now of Christmas"
The Lawrence Children's Choir performs "Gaudete! Gaudete!" from their new Christmas CD, "Sing We Now of Christmas."
For years, people have asked Janeal Krehbiel if the Lawrence Children's Choir had a Christmas CD.
Finally, this year, the answer is yes.
"Children and music go together, and at this time of the year, I want to hear children singing choral music well," says Krehbiel, the choir's artistic director. "Schools very often are not allowed to sing sacred music, so it's hard for them to have a venue for the great classics, the great carols."
"Sing We Now of Christmas" features 17 tracks of Christmas-related music. But don't expect the same carols you hear over the supermarket sound system.
"I studied it for about four years, and I intended to do it for four years," Krehbiel says. "But I tried to find music that not everybody had on their CDs."
The resulting CD - the choir's fifth recording - includes a selection from "Hansel and Gretel," "Patapan" and "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day."
Most of the recordings were from previous Christmas concerts - not from a recording session.
"We had two recording sessions, but my kids tend to sing like they have a gun to their heads," Krehbiel says. "They're all tense. At a concert, they're relaxed and sing for the joy of it, and the gift-giving of it."
Krehbiel is quick to say that the choir - which consists of 75 children in grades 5 through 9 - doesn't promote a particular theological slant, and the members don't talk about religion.
"What we're doing is exposing ourselves to great history," Krehbiel says.
The Children's Choir will perform today as part of the Organ Vespers concert at Kansas University. Performances are at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., both at the Bales Organ Recital Hall, which is adjacent to the Lied Center.
The CD "Sing We Now of Christmas" is available for $15 at several locations around Lawrence, including Hastings Books, Music and Video, 1900 W. 23rd St.; Borders Books and Music, 700 N.H.; Stitch-On Needlework, 926 Mass.; Hume Music, 711 W. 23rd St.; Central National Bank locations and the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.
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