Advent before Christmas
The Great O Antiphons provide an architecture of preparation—wisdom, longing, promise, and the nearness of Emmanuel.
For sacred spaces
Let the dark remain dark long enough to sing.
The O Antiphons let a sacred space inhabit expectation before Christmas arrives. Children’s voices, chant, chamber sound, and jazz make the long ache for God-with-us audible.
Advent in its own voice
Make room for the season of longing.
O Emmanuel gives Advent its full spiritual and musical weight. The work begins in expectation rather than arrival, allowing darkness, silence, desire, and hope to sound before the brightness of Christmas.
In a parish, cathedral, diocesan gathering, ecumenical community, or sacred-music series, texts carried for centuries encounter the breath and risk of living performers. The work is conceived as a concert; any devotional or liturgical context would be considered separately and carefully.
Children as principal artists
A local children’s choir can stand at the center of the work, prepared as a serious musical partner rather than added as decoration.
A gathering for the wider community
The work can gather parishioners, neighbors, ecumenical partners, donors, and listeners around one sustained passage through Advent.
Forms in time
What the space can ask of the work
Each form begins from the architecture, resonance, people, and Advent life already present. Repertoire context, reflection, formation, and local participation are discovered together.
Cathedral or parish concert
The complete concert enters the room’s resonance and architecture.
- Prepared local children’s choir
- Artist-led or locally assembled adult ensemble
- Elegant acoustic or enhanced production
Retreat-concert
Music and agreed reflection share one frame without turning the work into liturgy.
- Concert performance
- Artist conversation
- Parish or diocesan formation context
Choir partnership or artist residency
The local choir enters through rehearsal; coaching and conversation grow around its work as agreed in advance.
- Choir rehearsal or workshop
- Sacred-music discussion
- Community or donor-supported presentation
Who holds the room
Gather the people who know the room
The work takes its deepest root when artistic, pastoral, educational, and community knowledge meet before the first rehearsal.
- Director of music and choir leadership
- Clergy and pastoral staff
- Parish, cathedral, or diocesan arts committee
- Children’s choir and safeguarding leadership
- Formation, retreat, and ecumenical partners
- Donors or community-access sponsors
Bodies for the work
Who carries the music into the room?
The engagement can be artist-led with a prepared local children’s choir, fully assembled with touring adults, or licensed for local performance. Liturgical use, if contemplated, requires a separate artistic and pastoral conversation.
01The work takes root
Made with a local children’s choir
A prepared local children’s choir becomes the center of the encounter. The adult ensemble is formed from traveling and locally rooted artists.
- Held by the place
- The local choir partnership, venue, approved local artists, and production support established in advance.
- Carried by the artist team
- J.J. Wright in the agreed leadership role, plus the traveling bass and drum artists and any other contracted touring personnel.
02The work arrives intact
The adult ensemble travels
J.J. Wright, the four adult soloists, winds, strings, bass, and drums cross the distance together and meet the children’s choir inside the score.
- Held by the place
- The prepared local children’s choir, venue, and production support unless otherwise agreed.
- Carried by the artist team
- The complete contracted adult artistic ensemble and agreed artistic leadership.
03The score changes hands
Made entirely in place
A local company inhabits the complete work under an approved license. J.J. Wright can enter as pianist, conductor, music director, coach, or residency artist.
- Held by the place
- The licensed performance, local artistic personnel, preparation, venue, and production.
- Carried by the artist team
- Licensed materials, agreed artistic guidance, and J.J. Wright’s participation when contracted.
04The room becomes material
Light, image, and amplified space
Any performing constellation can expand through designed light, discreet amplification, and projected image, developed as artistic materials in their own right.
- Held by the place
- The approved venue systems, operators, crew, and production infrastructure.
- Carried by the artist team
- The artistic brief, approved media, and any separately contracted production personnel.
Production colophon
The vision has weight, dimensions, and a call time.
The work needs precision without forcing every choir, hall, and constellation of artists into the same blueprint.
Open the production colophonTime, bodies, stage, light, materials, and advance
Duration and program order
Approximately 40–45 minutes. “Gabriel’s Message” is an optional opening and must be confirmed in the final program order.
Standard forces
Children’s choir; four adult soloists; flute; clarinet doubling bass clarinet; bassoon; string quartet; piano, bass, and drums; conductor or music director.
Stage and piano
The stage must safely accommodate the confirmed choir, adult soloists, chamber ensemble, jazz trio, and artistic leadership with clear musical sightlines.
Confirmed during advanceA form-specific stage plot, piano requirements, riser plan, and backline details follow the confirmed choir count, personnel, and venue drawings.
Audio and lighting
The work may be presented as an elegant acoustic concert or as a fully enhanced production with discreet reinforcement and designed lighting.
Confirmed during advanceThe final input list, monitoring, cueing, crew, and lighting plan are created for the room; recording-session channel counts are not live specifications.
Children’s choir preparation
The children’s choir is a principal ensemble and must arrive prepared for its first rehearsal with the traveling artists.
Confirmed during advanceChoir profile, preparation schedule, local leadership, rehearsal plan, chaperones, safeguarding, and guardian permissions are established before the engagement.
Materials and licensing
Scores, parts, performance materials, and licensing are available on request.
See how the work travels Download PDF
A form-specific stage plot is issued after the choir count, personnel, and venue drawings are confirmed.
Afterimages
What stayed with the listeners.
National coverage and close criticism register different traces of the work’s musical and sacred life.
The Irish Times
“A contemporary choral work that is imbued with the true meaning of Christmas.”Read the review NPR · Weekend Edition
‘O Emmanuel’ Composer Mixes In Jazz To Provide ‘Respite’ Within Traditional Hit
Listen to the NPR feature All About Jazz“The sheer warmth, wonder, and innocence of Christmas.”Read the review Church Life Journal · University of Notre Dame
“A rich mosaic of words and music.”Read the review Catholic World Report
“The music here bears the mark of true distinction.”Read the review
Invitation
Tell us about the sacred space
Tell us about the space, Advent context, choir community, and the pastoral or artistic purpose you hope the engagement might serve.
Begin before the final shape is known.
Begin with the season, the place, and the people you hope to gather. The performing body can follow in conversation.