On a Winter's Eve
When: Sunday, December 6, 2026 at 4:00 pm
Where: Alma Thomas Theater at Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas
Who: The San Gabriel Chorale under the direction of Dr. Bruce Cain
Tickets: $25 adults, Students Free under 18 or with Southwestern University ID.
Tickets are available on this website as well as at the door.
Celebrate the beauty and majesty of the Christmas season as the San Gabriel Chorale presents a concert featuring music by three of the greatest composers, each offering a different expression of praise, celebration, and spiritual reflection.
- J.S. Bach George
- Frideric Handel
- Franz Joseph Haydn
Bach’s radiant Gloria in excelsis Deo, Cantata 191, brings the brilliance and joy of the Christmas proclamation to life. With music that is both festive and deeply reverent, Bach captures the angelic announcement of “Glory to God in the highest” with soaring choral lines, lively instrumental writing, and the unmistakable grandeur of the Baroque style. It is music filled with light, movement, and exultation.
Handel’s jubilant Utrecht Jubilate offers a magnificent expression of thanksgiving and praise. Written with Handel’s gift for bold choruses, noble melodies, and dramatic energy, this work surrounds the listener with a sense of ceremony and celebration. Its music is bright, confident, and uplifting—an ideal companion to the Christmas season and a reminder of the power of choral music to inspire joy.
Haydn’s powerful Missa in Tempore Belli, also known as the Paukenmesse or “Mass in Time of War,” brings a deeper emotional dimension to the program. Composed during a time of uncertainty and conflict, the work combines beauty, urgency, and hope. Its famous use of timpani gives the Mass a dramatic intensity, while Haydn’s lyrical writing offers moments of tenderness, faith, and peace. The result is a moving masterpiece that speaks not only to its own time, but to every season in which people long for comfort, courage, and renewal.
Together, these three works create a Christmas concert of brilliance, majesty, and meaning—music that celebrates joy, reflects on hope, and invites audiences into the timeless beauty of the choral tradition.
