CD | The Great Glad Tidings Tell: Carols From Copley Square

The Choir of Trinity Church Boston | Trinity Brass Ensemble
Jerrick Cavagnaro, organ | Colin Lynch, conductor

Acis is thrilled to announce “The Great Glad Tidings Tell: Carols from Copley Square” a festive new album that showcases the singers of Trinity Church Boston, the historic 1,500-seat Episcopal Church in Boston’s Back Bay. The title comes from “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, the famous text penned by Phillips Brooks, the storied nineteenth century rector of this parish – yet the release has a contemporary feel that showcases the choir’s commitment to inclusivity, community, and musical excellence. Conducted by Colin Lynch, this recording features music performed every year during the choir’s Candlelight Carols concerts, a treasured tradition which Bostonians have had on their holiday calendars since 1909. As we search for ways to broaden the canon of western music to connect new audiences with new composers, you could not find a better vector than Trinity Church Boston.

Trinity Church has a rich recording legacy. “Candlelight Carols”, an album from the 1990s, was still the “Wall
Street Journal” top Holiday choice for famed pianist and vocalist Diana Krall two decades later. This new carols
recording preserves that same hallmark of choral joy and precision, but with a wider and diversified repertoire, recast as a Symphonic Chorus-sized volunteer choir with the inclusion of children singing in a new treble section. Indeed, Choir & Organ notes that, “it’s the rarities…that catch the ear and add interest to an attractive festive offering…the addition of children’s voices, the resulting blend eloquently encapsulating the season’s drama, joyfulness and beauty.” New arrangements by women and composers of color anchor the program, and include American composers B.E. Boykin (“Coventry Carol”) Jessica French (“The Oxen”), Jessica Nelson (“There is No Rose”), Rosephanye Powell (“Have you seen the Baby Jesus?”), and rising British star, Yshani Perinpanayagam (“In Bethlehem Above”). Another centerpiece of the program is Andriy Hnatyshyn’s setting of a Ukrainian carol, “What Is This Great Wonder of the World,” sung in Ukrainian by queer biracial black soprano soloist, Kristine Caswelch. 

Stirring new interpretations from composer-performer Jerrick Cavagnaro, open the album. Cavagnaro’s
arrangement of “Masters in This Hall” is published in “Carols for Choirs 6” by Oxford University Press and
features percussion. As the winner of the American Guild of Organists’ 2024 National Competition in Organ
Improvisation, he pulls out all the stops for this first recording of the newly restored Nave Organ, built by the
renowned Ernest M. Skinner in 1926 and tonally restored in 2019. Grand arrangements for organ and brass
ensemble by Trinity’s former director Richard Webster add a definitive “tinsel” to traditional congregational
carol favorites, “O Come, all ye faithful” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”. As conductor Colin Lynch says,
“It’s music to deck the halls to!” And at 20 tracks and almost 80 minutes there is time to decorate the whole tree.

The album marks the choir’s evolution as an institution to a highly trained volunteer ensemble that has
community at its core, often attracting Boston’s new musical arrivals as they find their feet in a new city.
Lynch’s ensemble reflects his values and is dedicated to openness, striving to keep the Episcopal choral tradition vibrant, and to nurture a thriving, welcoming musical community of singers as a core driving force of Trinity’s mission to “build the volume of love in the world”.