FEELINGS…whoa whoa whoa…FEELINGS
Danny Johnson
Have you ever had that feeling—well, you know, it’s not really a feeling, it’s a…yeh, an overwhelming desire to not do that thing that you really need to do. It’s the crushing obligation, the fear of failure, the sure exile and…oh wait, no, no exile. That’s a different story. It’s like when you need to buy a Christmas present for someone but there’s an lurking sense that you already gave them that very same present a few years ago (or that they gave it you and you don’t want to regift them ‘their’ present). So you think you should try to find your records to see if you noted which gift went to/came from whom and when, and then you remember that you’ve always thought that might be a pretty good idea but you—a paragon of procrastination—never got around to it.
ANYWAY it’s just like that: The above was just an allegory because I would never ever get mixed up about gifts going to/coming from whom and when. Never ever. But that whole story fits neatly into the initial overwhelming desire to not do that thing that you really need to do.
On the other hand, I really want to tell you about our upcoming concert for the season. Which season, you may ask? I trust that you’ll figure it out when you read our blurb below.
Y’all come!
–Danny
P.S.: Okay, so I did finally do that task I was dreading for so long—and that shirt really does look much nicer when it’s freshly ironed! Lesson learned, at least temporarily.
P.P.S.: I’m looking at this gift card from a huge service station/rest stop chain that has huge stores, and I’m really wondering who gave it to me… If it was you, call me. We need to talk.
Joy and Light:
Delights of the Season
Saturday, December 13, 2025, at 7:30 pm
&
Sunday, December 14, 2025, at 3:00 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue
Hosted by Arts on Alexander on the campus of Redeemer Presbyterian Church,
2111 Alexander Ave, Austin, TX 78722.
Visit the Arts on Alexander 2024-2025 events on the AoA website.
Admission (with fees): $53 VIP general; $38 general; $48 VIP seniors (60+);
$33 seniors (60+); $5 students with ID
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.
For more information, email boxoffice@early-music.org.
Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of holiday music through the ages. Cultures across the centuries have celebrated this festive season with music and we are contributing our share with medieval chant, joyous carols, magnificent motets, rousing Celtic songs, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.
The Christmas music for our annual Joy and Light concert comes from all over Europe, including folk tunes and compositions from Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, and the British Isles that have remained popular through modern times. The British Isles are represented by a variety of popular ballads and folk songs from England, Scotland, and Ireland, all penned by that long-lived composer, Anonymous. France and Spain are similarly represented by anonymous composers, as well as the brilliant Tomás Luis de Victoria. For some of our more unique selections, we have chosen two lively secular Sephardic songs and one Israeli children’s song for Chanukah, and we will present newly composed music based in part on the Ukrainian folk tune that served as the basis for the popular Carol of the Bells.
Many of us know the charming and popular tune Resonet in laudibus by the title Joseph, Lieber Joseph mein, which dates from the 14th century. Both titles were popular with composers in the 16th and 17th centuries and many of the Resonet in laudibus motets were fairly large-scale works with multi-voiced and antiphonal sections. Rather than limit ourselves to the interpretations of one composer, we felt it would be more representative (and a lot more fun) to create our own large-scale work using a different composer from northern Europe for each verse or section. In our version, we use three verses by Michael Praetorius, and one verse each by Polish composer Bartłomiej Pękiel, the Franco-Flemish composer Jacob Regnart, and the German composer Samuel Scheidt.
We always try to feature a few beloved pieces from our holiday repertoire; this year those selections include Drive the Cold Winter Away featuring David Lopez, tenor soloist, with choir and orchestra. Enjoy the audio teaser from our Lullay, Lullay CD below.
Visit our Recordings page to view all of our CDs. They make great holliday gifts!
Jenifer Thyssen, Cayla Cardiff, Joel Nesvadba, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Jenny Houghton, Ryland Angel, and Adrienne Pedrotti Bingaman are among the featured soloists, and we are happy to have both acclaimed harpist Therese Honey and kantele virtuoso Viktoria Nizhnik featured in our small orchestra.
Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music.
Encompassing more than 700 years of festive creativity and beauty,
this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart.
We coined a new word to describe the concert: multilicious!
