Benjamin Britten’s joyous Ceremony of Carols is cherished around the globe for its ebullient energy and graceful settings of Middle English Christmas texts. Scored for harp and treble voices (sopranos & altos), Britten’s masterpiece often leaves lower-voiced members of choirs yearning for a comparable musical experience — and, now, thanks to Welsh-Irish composer Piers Connor Kennedy, they have one! Composed in 2023 as a tenor & bass-voice companion to Ceremony of Carols, Nowel-el-el! similarly sets a suite of early English texts with shimmering harp accompaniment — and The Emmanuel Choir is honored to offer the North American premiere of this glorious new holiday work. In this concert, hear both Britten and Kennedy alongside other seasonal favorites — and celebrate Christmas with The Emmanuel Choir!
Jacqueline Pollauf, harp
Piers Connor Kennedy, featured composer
Christian Lane, director
About Tickets
A ticket is required of all attendees, and may be obtained prior to the concert or at the door beginning 30 minutes prior to the performance.
Emmanuel Church is committed to ensuring all persons have access to its space and its musical offerings, regardless of income and ability to pay. Therefore, for most concerts, a limited number of Free Rush Tickets will be made available, online only, beginning 24 hours in advance of a concert's start time.
Single tickets are transferable, but not refundable. If your plans change and you can no longer attend a performance, we encourage you to transfer your tickets to a friend. To do so, open your ticket in Eventbrite and edit the ticket's name and email address.
Subscription tickets may be exchanged for a different concert on the same series. Simply write to tickets@emmanueldowntown.org to request a ticket exchange.
We thank Emmanuel's Friends of Music for their ongoing and significant support of programming at Emmanuel. If you are intersted in becoming a Friend of Music, please click here.
Music at Emmanuel is grateful to the Maryland State Arts Council and the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Portfolios, www.BakerArtist.org, for their support of the 2024–2025 season.
About the choir
The Emmanuel Choir is Maryland's premier professional liturgical choral ensemble.
A 16-voice fully-professional mixed-voice ensemble, its 12-member core is augmented by four Choral Scholars, each a local young artist. Rooted in the great and expansive choral traditions of the Anglican (Episcopal) Church, the Emmanuel Choir’s repertoire spans the centuries — from Italian Renaissance to English Romantic; from plainsong to the 21st century — and includes regular world-premiere performances of new music composed for the church of today and tomorrow. The choir is directed by Christian Lane.
Parking and Transportation
Emmanuel Church is located at 811 Cathedral Street in Baltimore, on the corner of Cathedral & W. Read Streets in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood.
Ample street parking, both free and metered, is available in historic Mt. Vernon. After 6:00 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on Sundays, many meters do not require payment and most residential restrictions are lifted. Please be sure to consult signage carefully.
However, we strongly encourage our patrons to avoid the stress of searching for street parking, and to make a parking plan before arriving into our residential neighborhood. To that end, the following websites and associated mobile apps may be very useful:
The closest paid parking lot is directly behind Emmanuel Church, at 810 N. Charles Street. Public lots within a three-block radius of the church include:
810 N. Charles Street
910 N. Charles Street
917 N. Charles Street
926 N. Charles Street
1000 N. Charles Street
1017 N. Charles Street
124 W. Read Street
230 W. Read Street
600 Cathedral Street
The church is also served by local bus routes on both Cathedral and N Charles Streets, as well as the Charm City Circulator (Purple Route) and Baltimore LiteRail Link (Mt Vernon/Centre St Stop).
Emmanuel Church is a 15-minute walk from Baltimore's Pennsylvania Rail Station (with regular MARC and Amtrak services).