The Advent Of Daily Musical Delights

Silent Night and Away in a Manger are embedded in our consciousness, but how do you introduce new and contemporary Christmas carols into the cultural bloodstream?

John Goodall talks to the artistic director behind a musical Advent calendar

- John Goodall

EVERY day this December, the acclaimed ensemble ORA will be releasing a recording of a carol by a living composer. This musical Advent Calendar will not only be available on the choir’s website, but will be broadcast by Classic FM and other radio stations around the world. Its collection of 24 carols, some of them new arrangements of familiar texts and tunes, is book ended on December 1 and 24 respectively by two specially commissioned compositions by John Rutter and Debbie Wiseman.

ORA was established in 2014 by its musical director and conductor Suzi Digby, Lady Eatwell, a well-known advocate of choral singing; her explicit intention was to feed what she sees as a widespread contemporary interest in the form. Indeed, she hopes that future generations will look back on the 21st century as a second golden age of choral music and her determination is that ORA will help create the music that future generations will identify as part of its canon.