Track Listing

1. The First Nowell - The Princeton University Chapel Choir
2. The Hills Are Bare At Bethlehem - Westminster Choir Of The Westminster Choir College Of Rider University
3. Ding Dong! Merrily On High - The American Boychoir
4. How Brightly Shines The Morning Star
5. In The Bleak Midwinter - The American Boychoir
6. This Christmastide (Jessye's Carol) - The Tartantones Of Stuart Country Day School Of The Sacred Heart
7. Adam Lay Ybounden - The Princeton University Chapel Choir
8. Hodie Christus Natus Est - The Princeton High School Choir
9. Sussex Carol - The Princeton University Chapel Choir
10. Personent Hodie - The Princeton Girlchoir
11. Mariabaen - The Princeton University Chapel Choir
12. Night Of Silence - The Tartantones Of Stuart Country Day School Of The Sacred Heart
13. Nativity Carol - The Princeton University Chapel Choir
14. C�l�brons La Naissance - The Princeton High School Choir
15. Kerstlied - The Princeton University Chapel Choir
16. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - The Princeton Girlchoir
17. Hark, I Hear The Harps Eternal - The Princeton Day School Choir Madrigal Singers
18. Sleigh Ride
19. A New Year Carol - The Princeton Girlchoir
20. Marche From The Nutcracker - Westminster Concert Bell Choir Of The Westminster Choir College

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #279772 in Music
• Released on: 2008-10-16
• Dimensions: .25" h x 5.50" w x 5.50" l, .16 pounds

Album Description
The richly-talented student choral community of Princeton, New Jersey has donated this music to benefit some of the world's neediest children via the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations' frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. The bulk of WFP's operations are focused in sub-Saharan Africa.

All proceeds from this effort will go directly to the WFP's School Feeding program, one that helps in two ways: it reduces hunger and improves education. In poor countries, the burden often falls on children to help their families make a living. This means they don't have the time, the economic means, or the energy to attend school. For a child suffering from hunger, going to school is less important than having enough food to eat. WFP provides school meals to help offset the loss of the child's contribution to the family's livelihood.

A food incentive helps convince parents that they can afford to allow their children to go and to stay in school. The promise of at least one nutritious meal each day attracts children to school, boosts enrollment, promotes regular attendance, and enhances student performance.

Eight Princeton-based student choral groups - including the famed American Boychoir - are featured on the debut A Princeton Christmas: For the Children of Africa album as a way to lift spirits around the world and raise funds for the School Feeding campaign of the United Nations World Food Program in Africa.

A Princeton Christmas quickly went from idea to album because no school approached - from high schools to Princeton University - ever hesitated to get involved. The collection of choral works was produced in conjunction with the U.S.-based Friends of the World Food Program, a non-profit organization dedicated to building support for the WFP.

All proceeds from the purchase of downloads or CDs will go directly to the children of Africa through the WFP. The purchase of one download will feed a child for two days while buying the hour-long, 20-song album will feed a child for more than one month.
The compilation includes selections donated by The American Boychoir, The Princeton Girlchoir, The Princeton University Chapel Choir, The Westminster Concert Bell Choir and Westminster Choir of the Westminster Choir College of Rider University, The Tartantones of Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, The Princeton Day School Choir Madrigal Singers, and The Princeton High School Choir. While this is the inaugural year for A Princeton Christmas, our goal is to begin a new and lasting holiday tradition.

To learn more about the School Feeding programs, see www.wfp.org/food_aid/school_feeding. See how you can help at www.friendsofwfp.org.
Tom Meagher, Executive Producer,
on behalf of A Princeton Christmas

John Baker, editing and mastering engineer
Evelyn Good, logo and CD design
Martin Olech, web design

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding addition to a Christmas CD collection
I will not write as detailed a review as TOM TOM did but I will say that I have over 100 Christmas CDs and the two "A Princeton Christmas" CDs are now among my favorites - and not just because they're new! After a while, you just don't want to hear another rendition of "White Christmas" or "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." These two CDs have a number of unusual carols on them. They are BEAUTIFULLY performed. I liked them so much I just hit the play button again when they were over.

As an added bonus, you get to support a really worthy project - a school meal program for children in Africa. You help kids get the nutrition they need and the program helps to keep them in school.

Classics Today Review

There's certainly no shortage of worthy causes vying for our attention during the holiday season, but here's one that's sure to satisfy fans of Christmas choral music, whose purchase of the CD also will benefit the children of sub-Saharan Africa through the United Nations' World Food Program. The CD gathers together performances of Christmas music by various choral groups based in Princeton, New Jersey--which happens to boast one of the continent's more impressive lineups, from the renowned Westminster Choir and American Boychoir to the Princeton Girlchoir, Princeton High School Choir, and Princeton University Chapel Choir. The 20 selections are not from a single concert but were contributed/donated by the various ensembles and are drawn primarily from concert performances from different places and dates, all from the past 10 years. (There's even a performance--"Let it Snow!"--from the Princeton Girlchoir's appearance on the NBC-TV Today Show in 2002.)


Naturally, there are substantial differences in sound quality and ambience from track to track, and likewise the polish and technical refinement of the performances varies, but with a couple of exceptions the results range from perfectly acceptable to very good. And it's wonderful to hear on one disc such variety of repertoire and types of ensembles, from the younger voices of the American Boychoir and high school groups to the college choirs of Princeton and Westminster. Most of the pieces are familiar--such favorites as David Willcocks' setting of Ding dong! Merrily on high, Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride, Vaughan Williams' Sussex Carol and First Nowell, Darke's In the bleak midwinter, Rutter's Nativity Carol, Britten's A New Year Carol, and the aforementioned Let it Snow!; but I would list several others as highlights.


These include the Princeton Girlchoir's rendition of Rutter's setting of Personent Hodie, the Princeton Day School Choir Madrigal Singers in Alice Parker's Hark, I hear the harps eternal, and best of all, the Westminster Choir's gorgeous performance of Ralph Johnson's beautiful Christmas hymn The hills are bare at Bethlehem (a setting of the early-American tune "Prospect" that demands several immediate repeats!). Frank Ferko's excellent Adam Lay Ybounden receives a fine rendition by the Princeton University Chapel Choir, as does Daniel Kantor's Night of silence by the Tartantones of Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart. The program concludes not with voices but with bells--a very impressive virtuoso performance of William Griffin's arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "March" from the Nutcracker by the Westminster Concert Bell Choir.


This CD was issued in 2007 and a second volume has just been released this year. Both are available as CDs or via download through the project's website--[...]--or at [....]. All proceeds from your purchase will go directly to feed children--the most appreciated $20 gift you'll give this year.


--David Vernier

All proceeds fund meals for hungry African children
Princeton-based student choral groups donated this music as a way to lift spirits around the world and raise funds to benefit some of the world's neediest children via the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations' frontline agency for hunger relief. All proceeds will fund school meals programs in sub-Saharan Africa. Proceeds to date have provided 160,000 meals to hungry African children. The purchase of this CD will feed a child for more than two months.

Review by Bradley Bambarger, Star Ledger:
Those burned out by Christmas marketing overload should listen to the first track on this CD -- a spirit-raising version of "The First Nowell" by the Princeton University Choir, singing the Vaughan Williams arrangement in a December 2001 concert. It's the first of many beautiful moments on this disc assembled in Princeton for the best of reasons -- to raise money to feed the less fortunate. Proceeds from album sales (either CDs from princetonchristmas.org or downloads via iTunes) will go to the United Nations' World Food Program. Along with six more performances by the Princeton University Choir, the 20-track disc features other wonderfully trained voices from Princeton -- the American Boychoir, the Princeton Girlchoir, the Tartantones of Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart and the Westminster Choir of Rider University's Westminster Choir College. The Westminster Bell Choir closes the disc with a spin through the march from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker."