Join us in person again!




Friday, December 17, 2021, 7:00 PM
St. Thomas Aquinas Church
305 S. 1st St., Waterford, WI 53185

Sunday, December 19, 2021, 3:00 PM
First Presbyterian Church
716 College Ave., Racine, WI 53403

We want to share our long-anticipated return to in-person concerts with you! Lessons and Carols is a perennial favorite that expresses joy, wonder, and peace of the Christmas story through word and song. You are warmly invited to these beautiful venues to listen, sing along, and share fellowship in this season of hope and love.

The Service of Nine Lessons and Carols had its Kings College, Cambridge, premiere in 1818, and has become a beloved tradition worldwide. You will be treated to inspirational music including familiar carols such as “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” jazz‑inspired “Evening Prayer” by popular contemporary composer Ola Gjeilo featuring and Patricia Badger on trumpet, and an ethereal setting of William Blake’s poem, “The Lamb” by British composer John Tavener.

We regret that Patricia Backhaus is unable to play. We welcome Gerry Keene, principal trumpet with the Festival City Symphony.

The Choral Arts Society looks forward to welcoming audiences while keeping health and safety a top priority. To that end, we have developed these policies and protocols: All, regardless of vaccination status, must wear a mask (covering mouth and nose) throughout the building. Our chorus will be masked when singing out of respect for our audience; we ask that our readers and audience mask out of respect for our chorus and staff. Distancing should be maintained. Hand sanitizer will be available. Anyone experiencing symptoms or recently exposed to Covid-19 should not attend and will be eligible for a ticket exchange or refund. Vaccination, or a recent negative Covid-19 test, is strongly encouraged.

CAS’s associate conductor and board member Patricia Badger recalls, “One time I was eating breakfast at Frank’s Diner in Kenosha. What should be blasting away but Lessons and Carols all the way from England! Everyone was ecstatic and singing along on the carols. And I thought to myself: I’m sure someone somewhere in England is seated in a pub, singing right along with me. The universal found me; that’s the spirit of Lessons and Carols.”

Funding for this season has been allocated from the Vonnie and Maglona Jones Fund, and the Unrestricted Fund within the Racine Community Foundation. This season was supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.