LIVE From London festival

From favourite Christmas carols to joyful Salvation Army brass, VOCES8 welcomes you to the Sound of Christmas.

Host ensemble VOCES8 clarions ‘This Endris Night’ from the iconic St Martin-in-the-Fields, tracing a path from reflection to celebration. Sacred and secular voices intertwine, culminating in a sparkling finale of jazz and popular classics. APOLLO5’s crystalline beauty gilds music from across the centuries in ‘Noël Nouvelet’ including Francis Poulenc’s ‘Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël’. The VOCES8 Scholars join members of The Salvation Army's International Staff Band under Bandmaster Jonathan Evans for 'Joy to the World', illuminating the colour, power and intimacy of the brass tradition - including, of course, best-loved carols to sing along to.

Rising stars The Mancunium Consort arrive fresh from the group’s release of its VOCES8 Records album 'Still Waters': 'Christmas Crackers' traces the Nativity from prophecy to the Christ child before an unabashedly joyful finale. Meridian and conductor Irene Messoloras move between winter stillness and joyful proclamation, setting Stravinsky's 'Ave Maria' beside carols by Lucy Walker, Ola Gjeilo, and an exhilarating 'Carol of the Bells'. Often requested, Paul Smith’s cosy ‘Winter House’ makes its return. Six-voice all-women ensemble Lyyra, journeys from the candlelit traditions of Scandinavia, by way of British songs, to the warmth and swing of its own American Christmas.

Coaxing you away from bustle and busyness, the VOCES8 Foundation Choir leads you in the reflective and atmospheric, night-time service of ‘Compline for Christmas’. Conducted by Barnaby Smith, the programme weaves plainchant, Renaissance polyphony and beloved music and readings together as well as illuming two premieres by Taylor Scott Davis and Paul Smith. At the heart of the sequence is Thomas Tallis’s ‘Videte miraculum’.

LIVE From London Christmas celebrates beautiful music for every occasion and any hour. Enjoy eight concerts, bursting with hope, joy and seasonal cheer.