Customer Reviews

A Princeton Christmas: For The Children Of Africa

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This collection of Christmas music has many familiar tunes and some new sounds. The voices are young and well blended. I keep one in my car for getting into the holiday mood and have sent one to my sister to enjoy. The sound brings back memories of my days in chorus when the parts are learned separately then the moment comes when all of the voices sing. It lifts my spirit.

I will not write as detailed a review as TOM TOM did but I will say that I have over 100 Christmas CDs and the two "A Princeton Christmas" CDs are now among my favorites - and not just because they're new! After a while, you just don't want to hear another rendition of "White Christmas" or "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." These two CDs have a number of unusual carols on them. They are BEAUTIFULLY performed. I liked them so much I just hit the play button again when they were over.

As an added bonus, you get to support a really worthy project - a school meal program for children in Africa. You help kids get the nutrition they need and the program helps to keep them in school.

There's certainly no shortage of worthy causes vying for our attention during the holiday season, but here's one that's sure to satisfy fans of Christmas choral music, whose purchase of the CD also will benefit the children of sub-Saharan Africa through the United Nations' World Food Program. The CD gathers together performances of Christmas music by various choral groups based in Princeton, New Jersey--which happens to boast one of the continent's more impressive lineups, from the renowned Westminster Choir and American Boychoir to the Princeton Girlchoir, Princeton High School Choir, and Princeton University Chapel Choir. The 20 selections are not from a single concert but were contributed/donated by the various ensembles and are drawn primarily from concert performances from different places and dates, all from the past 10 years. (There's even a performance--"Let it Snow!"--from the Princeton Girlchoir's appearance on the NBC-TV Today Show in 2002.)


Naturally, there are substantial differences in sound quality and ambience from track to track, and likewise the polish and technical refinement of the performances varies, but with a couple of exceptions the results range from perfectly acceptable to very good. And it's wonderful to hear on one disc such variety of repertoire and types of ensembles, from the younger voices of the American Boychoir and high school groups to the college choirs of Princeton and Westminster. Most of the pieces are familiar--such favorites as David Willcocks' setting of Ding dong! Merrily on high, Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride, Vaughan Williams' Sussex Carol and First Nowell, Darke's In the bleak midwinter, Rutter's Nativity Carol, Britten's A New Year Carol, and the aforementioned Let it Snow!; but I would list several others as highlights.


These include the Princeton Girlchoir's rendition of Rutter's setting of Personent Hodie, the Princeton Day School Choir Madrigal Singers in Alice Parker's Hark, I hear the harps eternal, and best of all, the Westminster Choir's gorgeous performance of Ralph Johnson's beautiful Christmas hymn The hills are bare at Bethlehem (a setting of the early-American tune "Prospect" that demands several immediate repeats!). Frank Ferko's excellent Adam Lay Ybounden receives a fine rendition by the Princeton University Chapel Choir, as does Daniel Kantor's Night of silence by the Tartantones of Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart. The program concludes not with voices but with bells--a very impressive virtuoso performance of William Griffin's arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "March" from the Nutcracker by the Westminster Concert Bell Choir.


This CD was issued in 2007 and a second volume has just been released this year. Both are available as CDs or via download through the project's website--[...]--or at [....]. All proceeds from your purchase will go directly to feed children--the most appreciated $20 gift you'll give this year.


--David Vernier

Princeton-based student choral groups donated this music as a way to lift spirits around the world and raise funds to benefit some of the world's neediest children via the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations' frontline agency for hunger relief. All proceeds will fund school meals programs in sub-Saharan Africa. Proceeds to date have provided 160,000 meals to hungry African children. The purchase of this CD will feed a child for more than two months.

Review by Bradley Bambarger, Star Ledger:
Those burned out by Christmas marketing overload should listen to the first track on this CD -- a spirit-raising version of "The First Nowell" by the Princeton University Choir, singing the Vaughan Williams arrangement in a December 2001 concert. It's the first of many beautiful moments on this disc assembled in Princeton for the best of reasons -- to raise money to feed the less fortunate. Proceeds from album sales (either CDs from princetonchristmas.org or downloads via iTunes) will go to the United Nations' World Food Program. Along with six more performances by the Princeton University Choir, the 20-track disc features other wonderfully trained voices from Princeton -- the American Boychoir, the Princeton Girlchoir, the Tartantones of Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart and the Westminster Choir of Rider University's Westminster Choir College. The Westminster Bell Choir closes the disc with a spin through the march from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker."

The fact that some of the profits go to a worthy charity is all the more reason to buy this album. If you enjoy the samples, proceed directly to "buy the .mp3 album with one-click". You will not be disappointed.

Great Music for a Great Cause!!!!
"Princeton University is proud to be part of this remarkable grassroots initiative to help the children of Africa. The music is enchanting and inspirational, and the message of hope and love is immensely powerful."
-- Shirley M. Tilghman,
President of Princeton University
"We are proud to team up with the Princeton community in this timely and inspired effort to help feed the children of Africa."
-- Karen Sendelback, President and CEO of Friends of the World Food Program