Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

‘Tis the season for caroling and for productions of “A Christmas Carol, and, in fact, at least two San Antonio theaters staged their different versions of the classic tale, including a Broadway-style musical.

But here comes a novel take. The upcoming performance by the San Antonio Choral Society is billed as a “modern-day dramatization” of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ that will be performed by a choir and a narrator. This unique version was created by GRAMMY-nominated composer Benedict Sheehan, and was first performed in 2021 by the highly-praised, Boston-based Skylark Ensemble.

The presentation interweaves storytelling with music and new arrangements of familiar Christmas carols. “The music and story work hand-in-hand, with each other, reinforcing the impact of the story and their tone matching,” noted a reviewer in a Textura Review.

“It was the director of Skylark who approached Benedict with the idea of combining choral music with a story,” explained SACS artistic director Jennifer Seighman, who has known Sheehan personally, from their student days. “They have worked on two projects since. Their first project received a GRAMMY-nomination. This is their second one. Benedict really loved the idea of working on ‘A Christmas Carol.’ Because you have this classic tale by Dickens with a title ‘A Christmas Carol’ but there’s no music in it. So, he wanted to correct this oversight,” she said with a chuckle. “The stage director wrote an abridged version of Dickens’ work, for which Benedict added familiar Christmas carols, mostly from England, and then also composed some original music to serve as a soundtrack underneath the story.”

The score was published this past September and already six choral companies have chosen to do it. The London premiere by the BBC Singers was taking place just a couple of days ago, on the day of this interview.

“This piece is also very close to my heart,” noted Seighman. “Since we started working on this piece in September in rehearsals, (I realized) that just the depth of vocal cords, heightens the meaning of the story. (She illustrates the sounds by emulating them on the phone to help us hear various sounds. The colors that he achieves musically are impressive. The music is performed by the choir for all of these (eloquent, unique sounds). And the Christmas carols all have interesting, fresh arrangements.”
There are also five soloists: Britnee Simone (soprano), Megan Hachem (soprano), Jackson Beach (tenor), Kyree Harrison (bass), and Warren Halliday (bass).

Assisting the choir will be the narrator, KLRN anchor, Elizabeth Ruiz.

Seighman took the helm of the Choral Society in 2010, and from the start wanted to expand “the musical palette of the ensemble.”

“We haven’t repeated a single work since I started here, and I am always trying to challenge the singers with world music and fresh compositions like the one we are doing for this concert.” SACS is among the first few ensembles in the U.S. to perform the new work.

The Society has two choirs: the larger group that consists of 80 talented vocalists – all volunteers – and a smaller group of 24, called Sonoro, that performs more challenging music and, due to its size, is more mobile. Both choirs focus on classical, contemporary and culturally diverse music and enjoy collaborating with other performing groups in the community.

In addition to their own season, SACS members perform at Spurs basketball games, the New Year’s Eve Celebration at Sea World, the Texas Choral Directors Association annual convention, the San Antonio Founders’ Day Celebration, the annual Martin Luther King, jr. Ecumenical Service and many other events. The Society also has a robust outreach program that supports several conducting interns per year, and provides scholarships for graduating high school seniors who are interested in pursuing music degrees. It has also helped raise funds for local children’s charities.

But they may soon start a fundraiser for themselves, said the artistic director. The plan is to launch a 100×100 program to get 100 people to donate $100 to start an endowment, said Seighman.
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“A Christmas Carol,” Dec. 18 at 3 p.m., St. John’s Lutheran Church, 502 E. Nueva St.; tickets $5-$18,
www.sachoralsociety.ticketbud.com/a-christmas-carol