• A Fading Blossom

    An original piano/instrumental song. Somehow it reminds me of the last days of spring, a bittersweet farewell to the end of the early blooms. Can the rose of summer fade, The bright and blooming rose? Shall winter sweep the glade, Where its tender beauty blows? There is perfume in the air, And it steals from […]

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  • We Three Kings

    Crafted in 1857 by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., “We Three Kings” stands as a perennial ode to the Nativity story, drawing inspiration from the biblical account in Matthew 2, where visitors from the East present gifts to the newborn Jesus. While the Bible does not specify their number or title them as “kings,” Hopkins introduced […]

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  • Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker

    “Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker,” translated as “My Heart Always Wanders,” is a Scandinavian Christmas song. Originally written and published by Danish pietist bishop Hans Adolph Brorson in his song booklet Nøgle Jule-Psalmer (New Christmas Hymns) in 1732, the lyrics have been set to a number of tunes over the centuries, with the most well-known modern […]

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  • O Come All Ye Faithful

    The vocal part of this recording is performed by Shawna Anderson Norton. The text to “O Come All Ye Faithful” was originally written in Latin (“Adeste Fideles”) and is attributed to John Francis Wade, an 18th-century hymnist. It was first published in a collection known as “Cantus Diversi” in 1751. The original four verses of […]

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  • Hold Me Now

    This is a piano/instrumental cover of “Hold Me Now” by RED. Having someone there for you, when you feel there’s no way out, can be the greatest help of all. It may be a family member, a friend, a teacher, a counselor, a therapist, a higher power, or even an unexpected stranger. No one has […]

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  • Be Still, My Soul: Elegy

    This instrumental arrangement came while I was thinking about all those we’ve lost to COVID and other causes the past year. This is a tribute to those people we’ve personally known, and all those we didn’t and now will never have the chance to. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, Germany was predominantly Lutheran […]

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  • Once Upon a December

    “Once Upon a December” is a song from the 1997 animated film Anastasia, a story about the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, and the rumors surrounding her purported escape from Communist revolutionaries in 1918 who executed the rest of the Romanov royal family. Inspired by the 1952 play and […]

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  • A Spaceman Came Travelling

    Written by Chris de Burgh in 1975, “A Spaceman Came Travelling” topped the Irish charts a year after it was released. But it wasn’t until 1986 with De Burgh’s success of “The Lady in Red” that the UK took notice and it reached the top charts there, too. The idea for the song came to de […]

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  • Huron Carol (‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime)

    Generally considered the first Canadian Christmas carol, “‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime” was written in 1640 by a Jesuit priest, Jean de Brébeuf. He set the song to a French folk tune, “Une Jeune Pucelle.” Brébeuf was ministering to the Huron natives in Ontario, and created a song in their language that used symbols […]

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  • Mary’s Boy Child

    “Mary’s Boy Child” was written by singer, composer, conductor, and actor Jester Hairston in 1956. Hairston, a grandson of American slaves, dedicated himself to preserving African-American Spirituals and their rich history. After Hairston wrote the song, Harry Belafonte made the first recording which topped the charts for nine weeks in 1957. Others have released their […]

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  • Dives and Lazarus / A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief

    The tune to “Dives and Lazarus” is used in many folk songs throughout western Europe, including “Gilderoy” and “Crooked Jack” in Scotland, “The Star of the Country Down” in Ireland, and “The Unquiet Grave” in England. Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged the tune in his composition Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus for the 1939 World’s […]

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