Ars Musica Chorale has sung a holiday concert in Ridgewood every season since its first concert in 1966. This year's edition, An Ars Musica Holiday, is on Saturday, December 12, at 7:30 p.m. at Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Linwood Avenue, and it is built around Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, sung with the New Jersey Children's Choir.

The program

The chorale describes the evening as choral music and seasonal readings with organ, brass, harp and percussion. Alongside the Britten, the program includes works by John Rutter, David Willcocks, Ryan Brandau and Edvard Grieg, among others.

Tickets are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors and patrons with special needs, and $15 for students with ID. Children under 12 are admitted free.

A chorale in its 61st season

Ars Musica Chorale was founded in 1965 as a small community chorus and is led by Music Director Michael McCormick. It closed its 60th anniversary season this past spring and opened its 61st on November 7 at West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, in its first collaboration with the North Jersey Concert Band, on a program of music by American composers.

After the holiday concert, the season continues on Saturday, April 3, 2027, at 7:30 p.m. at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, when the chorale joins the Adelphi Orchestra for Johannes Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem). Tickets for that concert are $40 for adults, $35 for seniors and patrons with special needs, and $15 for students, with children under 12 free. The season ends with a program from Broadway's golden age, with choruses, solos and duets from musicals of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Singing with the chorale

Ars Musica auditions new singers, who meet with Music Director Michael McCormick for a short assessment of vocal range and sight-singing; a solo is welcome but not required. Rehearsals are on Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 10 p.m., early September through early June, at the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood, 113 Cottage Place. Details are on the chorale's Join page.

If you go

What: An Ars Musica Holiday, with Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and the New Jersey Children's Choir.
When: Saturday, December 12, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 155 Linwood Avenue, Ridgewood, Bergen County.
Tickets: $35 adults, $30 seniors and patrons with special needs, $15 students with ID, free under 12, at arsmusica.org.

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