As the first real snow falls across our Nation’s Capital, our choir’s rehearsals have taken on that unmistakable sense of anticipation that comes near the end of the year. We’ve been at this since the end of August—those warm, late-summer evenings now feel like a lifetime ago—but the change in the air has transformed our music. When the world outside turns white, the carols we’ve been carefully shaping for months suddenly feel as though they’ve found their season.
Back in August, when the crickets were still singing and the days stretched long, our rehearsal hall echoed with Gaudete and Deck the Hall. Neighbours within earshot could be seen smiling or shaking their heads, no doubt amused by the sound of Christmas cheer floating out into the humid air.
But we knew what they didn’t: those early rehearsals pay off! Building the foundation early lets the music deepen, ripen, and settle into our bones long before the first frost.
This year’s program is a journey through time, beginning with Gaudete—a radiant 16th-century call to rejoice—and ending with the world première of Carol of the Winter Squall, a brand-new work by our own Terry Brynaert. Between those two bookends lies an array of music both familiar and new: traditional carols, modern classics, and a generous helping of my own compositions and arrangements, several of which have been called back for this occasion.
Bringing older pieces back to life has been one of the most rewarding parts of this season. Some of these works I wrote or arranged decades ago, often for smaller ensembles or different voices, and hearing them anew through the vibrant sound of The Stairwell Carollers of 2025 has been like meeting old friends who’ve grown wiser with time. Reworking Venez, Divin Messie, Away in a Manger, and What Child Is This? has allowed me to revisit the intentions behind them—to refine textures, clarify harmonies, and rediscover the joy that inspired them in the first place. The singers, in turn, have brought their own insights, shaping the music with a warmth and subtlety that I could never have imagined when I first wrote it.
Creating a new piece, however, presents an entirely different challenge. With Carol of the Winter Squall, we are not merely performing—we are inventing. The first rehearsals were full of questions: How will the rhythms breathe? Where does the storm give way to calm? But as we’ve explored it together, the piece has taken on its own life—blustery, bright, and full of heart. There’s a special thrill in knowing we are its first interpreters, giving voice to something that didn’t exist a few months ago.
And as the final notes of Carol of the Winter Squall fade into silence, I hope you’ll feel what we’ve felt all season long—that music, whether centuries old or freshly minted, is a living thing. It grows, it changes, and it brings us together, year after year, to sing against the dark and welcome the light.
— Pierre Massie
OUR UPCOMING 2025 CHRISTMAS CONCERTS
https://www.stairwellcarollers.com/en/concerts-xmas/
And to hear the Carollers singing, visit our YouTube channel.
A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert tickets, CDs, Digital Downloads and Streaming sales.
Pierre Massie created our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. With wins in both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions, we are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs.
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