St. Olaf Christmas Festival: 'Our Hope for Years to Come'

The St. Olaf Christmas Festival has become one of the nation's most cherished holiday celebrations. This 2024 program, Our Hope for Years to Come, features more than 500 student musicians in a live performance. Listen now to the two-hour special drawn from this event, recorded live at Skoglund Auditorium on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Valerie Kahler is your host.

Started in 1912 by F. Melius Christiansen, founder of the St. Olaf College Music Department, the festival includes hymns, carols, choral works and orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity. It will feature the St. Olaf Choir, the St. Olaf Orchestra, the St. Olaf Cantorei, the St. Olaf Chapel Choir, the Manitou Singers and the Viking Chorus, performing as individual groups and as a massed ensemble.

Playlist

Here is the playlist for this two-hour special:

• Thomas Sleeper: Children's Suite No. 2: Lullaby for Chelsea Rose

• arr. Carolyn Jennings: Climb to the Top of the Mountain

• William Henry Monks, arr. Timothy Mahr: Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding

• George Frideric Handel: Lift Up Your Heads (Messiah)

• Olaf C. Christiansen: Sing Nowell, Sing Gloria

• arr. Ørjan Matre: Eit barn er født i Betlehem (A Child is Born in Bethlehem)

• arr. Dan Forrest and Kirk Moss: The First Noel

• Robert Schultz: Angels We Have Heard on High

• arr. Cary Ratcliff: Sing We Now of Christmas (Noël Nouvelet) from Three Folk Carols

• Roxanna Panufnik: Sleep, Little Jesus, Sleep

• arr. Lewis Redner: O Little Town of Bethlehem

• arr. Carolyn Jennings: Ding Dong! Merrily on High

• John Rutter: Gloria: Movement

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arr. Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn: Overture

• Abby Burt Betinis: Three Generations of Burt Family Carols

• Peder Knudsen: Jeg er sa glad (I Am So Glad)

• C.E.F. Weyse: O Day Full of Grace

• Steven Amundson: The Winds of Hope

• William Croft: O God, Our Help in Ages Past

• arr. John Rutter: O Holy Night

• arr. F. Melius Christiansen: Beautiful Savior

• Kim André Arnesen: His Light in Us

• Kim André Arnesen: I Will Light Candles This Christmas

Sponsors

Radio broadcasts of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival are made possible as a gift to the community by Tad and Cindy Piper.

And by

Alight

Video is produced through the generosity and support of St. Olaf's sponsors:

Paul and Margot Grangaard

David and Cynthia Hill

The Mark and Laura Johnson Family

Tim and Jan Maudlin with gratitude for the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values and Community

The Tomson Family Foundation

St. Olaf Christmas Festival is produced and distributed by American Public Media.