Ring in the holiday season with the Byrd Ensemble! The program pairs traditional carols with modern settings of the same source: Praetorius’s “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” alongside Sandström’s “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen,” two settings of the same rose hymn centuries apart. Holst’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” is followed by Gjeilo’s arrangement of the same carol. “Silent Night” arrives first in its original German as “Stille Nacht,” then again in world-premiere arrangements by Kerensa Briggs and Ēriks Ešenvalds. Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque” and Pärt’s “Nunc Dimittis” provide a moment of stillness.

​The largest work on the program is John Rutter’s “Dancing Day,” for treble voices and harp — a 25-minute cycle weaving together eight traditional carols, including “Coventry Carol,” “Personent Hodie,” and “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day,” into a single continuous arc.

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