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About the Program
  • Prelude: David N. Johnson

  • PROCESSIONAL: Hail to the Lord's Anointed - O0ld English

  • O Come, Emmanuel Alice Parker

  • A Christmas Pair: Down To The Roots Of The World Dan Locklair

  • Galician Christmas Carol On The Feast Of The Holy Kings: arr. Frederick Ericksen

  • Lux Aurumque: Eric Whitacre

  • Break Forth Into Joy: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

  • Infant Holy: Polish Carol - Adrian Williams

  • Rise Up, Shepherd and Follow: arr. David Hurd

  • Star Carol: John Rutter

  • The First Noel: Chorus and Audience - English Carol

  • All Men Draw Near: Peter Williams - Spelman College Glee Club

  • Mary, Did You Know?: Buddy Greene - Spelman College Glee Club

  • Up Above My Head: arr. Andrea Ramsey - Spelman College Glee Club

  • Glory to God: arr. Kevin Johnson - Spelman College Glee Club

  • We Are Christmas: Sarah Stephens/Kevin Johnson - Spelman College Glee Club

  • Joy To The World: George F. Handel - Chorus and Audience

  • The Bells Ring Out for Christmas: John Sacco - Morehouse College Glee Club

  • What Child Is This?: arr. Timothy C. Takach - Morehouse College Glee Club

  • Oh Holy Child: Michael Cox - Morehouse College Glee Club

  • Canto de Aguinaldo: arr. Channing Lefebvre - Morehouse College Glee Club

  • Go Where I Send Thee: arr. Uzee Brown, Jr. - Morehouse College Glee Club

  • Betelehemu (Yoruba/Nigerian): Morehouse College Glee Club - Olatunji-Whalum

  • O Come All Ye Faithful: J.F. Wade - Chorus and Audience

  • Behold The Star!: Negro Jubilee - arr. William L. Dawson

  • Glory Hallelujah To The New Born King: arr. Mark Butler - Negro Spiritual

  • See Dat Babe: arr. Stacey Gibbs

  • I Believe This Is Jesus:arr. Undine Smith Moore

  • Go Tell It On The Mountain: Negro Jubilee - Chorus and Audience

  • RECESSIONAL: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing - Felix Mendelssohn
86th Morehouse-Spelman Christmas Carol Concert Gives Community a Gift of Music

Back in 1927, Morehouse College Glee Club director Kemper Harreld and Spelman College president Florence Matilda Read thought it would be a great idea to give the Atlanta community a Christmas gift of music.

The glee clubs for both colleges, along with one at Atlanta University, would do a free Christmas concert together for the entire community. Harreld was also the also the director of the Spelman College Glee Club.

So on Dec. 21, 1927, in the newly built Sisters Chapel (which was the largest chapel of the three institutions at the time), the first Christmas Carol Concert thrilled a huge crowd.

Eighty-five years later, the concert has grown from a one-performance affair into a soaring trifecta, alternating over three days on both the Morehouse and Spelman campuses. It also has become, for many, the
musical beginning of the Christmas season.

“Some people say they’ve been going to the concert all of their lives,” said Morehouse’s Glee Club director David Morrow ’80, who also performed in the concert each year when he was a member of the Glee Club. “It’s a performance that we look forward to. It’s such a wonderful tradition.”