Seasonal Sounds Abound Downtown
Among the gifts of winter is a profusion of local opportunities to attend performances of world-class musical ensembles and to harmonize with neighbors in merry sing-alongs. Below, the Broadsheet presents a listing of this month’s holiday music offerings in Lower Manhattan. (Editor’s note: the events listed below are music-focused only. To be sure, there are many more special holiday events this month in Lower Manhattan. We invite you to peruse the Downtown Calendar at the bottom of each day’s Broadsheet Daily to find out what’s going on.)
On December 2, 9 and 16, Brookfield Place will host Holiday Harmonies in the Winter Garden, starting at noon. Performers will include Mafer Bandola and Friends (a quartet of Venezuelan musicians, today), Troy Simms (a saxophonist specializing in reggae, jazz, and Afro-beat, on December 9), and the Brooklyn Klezmer Trio (December 16).
On December 2 at 6pm, the South Street Seaport will present performances by the Doo Wop Project, Dueling Pianos, and Brooklyn Drumline to accompany its tree-lighting ceremony.
On Wednesday, December 3, at 7pm, Trinity Church will host the tenth anniversary concert of its choir, Downtown Voices, with a performance of Benjamin Britten’s “Saint Nicolas,” a cantata that recounts the story of the revered fourth-century bishop upon whom the legend of Santa Claus is based. The choir will be joined by tenor David Vanderwal, Trinity’s Youth Chorus, and NOVUS (Trinity’s contemporary music ensemble) while Stephen Sands conducts.
Also on December 3, Friends of Bogardus Plaza (the triangle formed by Hudson and Reade Streets with West Broadway) will present their annual Holiday Sing, starting at 4:30pm. (In the photograph at right, carolers gathered to sing in December 2023.) Consider bringing a new, unwrapped gift for a toy drive benefitting underprivileged kids (ten years old and younger).
On Sunday, December 7, the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church & National Shrine will present “Christmas at the Castle,” a musical adaptation by composer Kyriakos Kalaitzidis of the beloved short story, “To Christ, at the Castle,” by Greek author Alexandros Papadiamantis. Tickets are $50.
On December 10, 11, and 12 at 7pm, Trinity Church’s director of music, Melissa Attebury, will conduct a performance of the Trinity Choir, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and Trinity Youth Chorus in Handel’s “Messiah” – a work first presented by Trinity in 1770. Accompanied by period instruments in the church’s acoustically rich space, this “Messiah” is widely regarded as the most historically authentic version in New York. Ticket prices start at $25.
On December 11 at 5:30pm, the Perelman Performing Arts Center will present the Lucia Celebration, free, in partnership with the Swedish Consulate. A Swedish Lucia choir will perform a traditional candlelit ceremony and concert. Because the customary feast day of Saint Lucia once fell near the winter solstice (before Pope Gregory reformed the calendar in 1582), it represents to Swedes the turning point at which darkness begins yielding to light.
Trinity’s Youth Chorus will be joined by NOVUS on December 14 at 7pm to perform Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols,” along with the “Fantasia on Christmas Carols” by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
And Trinity’s “Sing, Choirs of Angels: Holiday Sing-Along” program on December 20, at 2pm (and repeated at 3:30pm) will bring together the St. Paul’s Chapel Choir, the Trinity Scholar Choir, and the Choir of Borough of Manhattan Community College, with the NOVUS brass and percussion sections.