A dramatic passage
Ancient invocation and stillness open into chamber color, jazz rhythm, gospel warmth, and a final communal arrival.
For public stages
Give December back its mystery.
Before celebration, the work makes space for darkness, expectation, and the shock of arrival. A public stage can hold that arc while a local children’s choir changes who the event belongs to.
Sacred source, public stage
Before spectacle, an act of attention.
O Emmanuel is best described as a concert work—a Jazz Advent Cantata—with the cumulative sweep of an oratorio and the immediacy of improvisation. It is not a worship service, and it does not conceal the sacred texts that give the music its shape.
For a public audience, the work makes longing, darkness, expectation, and hope physical before the familiar brightness of Christmas. Jazz, contemporary classical writing, choral singing, sacred art, and children’s voices are not marketed as a crossover; they become one environment.
December without the familiar script
The work refuses a parade of Christmas favorites while remaining rooted in the season’s darkness, longing, and arrival.
The city enters the score
A local children’s choir can become a principal artistic partner, with additional local adult artists entering according to the form the work takes.
Forms in time
How the work can inhabit the hall
The score remains constant. The bodies, local relationships, resonance, light, and scale of the encounter take their shape from the place.
Made with a local children’s choir
The traveling artistic core meets a prepared local children’s choir and an agreed constellation of touring and locally rooted adult artists.
- Local choir partnership
- Community rehearsal process
- Elegant acoustic or enhanced concert
The adult ensemble travels
The complete adult artistic ensemble tours, while the presenter normally supplies and prepares the children’s choir.
- Adult ensemble travels together
- Local children’s choir
- Venue-specific production advance
The performance grows roots
Rehearsal, learning, and public conversation let the performance emerge with local partners.
- Choir coaching
- Artist conversation
- Community or education partnership
Who holds the room
Who might gather around the work
The hall can gather a children’s choir, local jazz, chamber, and choral artists, educators, technicians, and access partners around one shared act of making.
- Programming and artistic administration
- Local children’s choir or youth-arts partner
- Jazz, chamber, and choral communities
- Education and community-engagement staff
- Technical and production leadership
- Seasonal sponsors or access partners
For public listings
Translate the source. Do not dilute it.
Frame the work as a seasonal concert with a strong dramatic arc while naming the O Antiphons and the Christian imagination from which it comes. This sample can be adapted to the presenter’s season and audience.
Bodies for the work
Who carries the music into the room?
Bass and drums travel for artist-led productions. J.J. Wright’s role and the balance between touring and locally hired artists are confirmed in the engagement agreement.
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.
Touring and local personnel
Bass and drums travel for artist-led productions. The four adult soloists, winds, and strings may travel or be hired locally.
Confirmed during advanceFinal personnel, approvals, travel party, and local-hire responsibilities are confirmed in the engagement agreement.
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.
Projection and media
Projection is optional and is not required for the standard acoustic presentation.
Confirmed during advanceWhen included, content, usage rights, playback, screen, projector, operator, sightlines, and lighting integration are approved in advance.
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
Invitation
Tell us about the hall and the people beyond it
Tell us about the hall, season, community partners, and what you want the room to experience. The first conversation can begin before every production detail is known.
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.