Come celebrate the Holidays with the Cleveland Chamber Choir with carols, Renaissance polyphony, and Sephardic music from Spain and Portugal. 

The concert will feature familiar favorites, like Fum, fum, fum and Ríu, Ríu Chíu and Tomás Luis de Victoria’s meditative O Magnum Mysterium”. Sure to become new favorites are the fiery ensaladas by Matteo Flecha that combine madrigal, dance and polyphonic traditions. “They are as close to rock music as you get in the early Baroque era,” said Ristow, “and the name of the genre really does mean salad, because each piece is like a tossed salad of languages and both secular and sacred musical styles.” Within Flecha’s La Bomba you’ll hear “a sea-shanty that meets a sacred Renaissance chanted prayer.”

Of particular note are the sacred compositions of Afro-Portuguese composer and music theorist Vicente Lusitano, whose work was neglected and excluded because of his race; and music from the Sephardic Jewish tradition. “Lustino’s music is some of the most striking and beautiful of the High Renaissance, and it’s only in the past several years that it has been rediscovered by choirs,” said Ristow. “We’re excited to share it with Cleveland audiences for the first time.”

Friday, December 15, 2023 at 8:00pm, Fairchild Chapel, Oberlin College, 50 W. Lorain St., Oberlin

Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 7:00pm, First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, 3630 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland

A pre-concert talk will be presented by Charles Edward McGuire, PhD, from Oberlin College & Conservatory, 45 minutes before each performance. This concert is presented with generous grants from The Cleveland Foundation, The Gund Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, and Local 4 Music Fund.

Free-will donations accepted. Ticket reservations requested at clevelandchamberchoir.org. A portion of the free-will donations made at these concerts will be directed towards the Julia De Burgos Cultural Arts Center for these concerts to support their work in serving Latino youth and their families through programs and activities designed to foster cultural pride and art appreciation.