Santa Fe Symphony's 'Carols & Choruses' to feature traditional sing-alongs and contemporary music

Carmen Flórez-Mansi conducted famed English composer John Rutter’s “Gloria” at Carnegie Hall in June.

“It’s great fun and extremely challenging to sing,” she said.

On Tuesday, Dec. 12, she’ll be leading a free concert featuring both the “Gloria” and Gregory Frideric Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus with the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe.

The concert also will feature the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra Brass in a festival of both traditional sing-alongs and contemporary music.

“I’ve been conducting it for seven years,” said Flórez-Mansi, adding she has been the cathedral music director for 22 years.

“We’ve been doing it as a gift to the community,” she added. “It’s always packed.”

Rutter’s “Gloria” is the concert’s anchor piece. Its setting features parts of the Latin “Gloria” from the Mass. The singers will perform its three movements with the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra Brass.

The concert opens with Johann Sebastian Bach’s “My Spirit Be Joyful” by the brass before moving into the traditional Spanish carols, such as the “Las Posadas Song” and “A La Ru.”

The sing-along opens with “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” followed by American composer Morten Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium.” Lauridsen is a National Medal of Arts recipient who teaches composition at the University of Southern California.

“That piece is a cappella,” Flórez-Mansi said, “and it’s in a very lush choral style. It’s a very beloved piece.”

Both the brass and the chorus will perform the classic carols “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “White Christmas” in an audience sing-along. The chorus will sing the traditional “Carol of the Bells” and “O Holy Night.”

Both the brass and chorus will end the show with Rutter’s “Gloria” and the “Hallelujah” chorus.

The audience is invited to join in on Handel’s masterpiece.

“I really encourage people to come,” Flórez-Mansi said. “It’s a wonderful evening in a beautiful space.

“To me, (the carols) remind us of wonderful times with our friends and families and wonderful memories of our childhoods. They weave that thread of humanity; it transports us to a time of hopefulness.”