This special annual holiday event will amplify messages of diversity and hope for this festive season. “The Ballad of the Brown King,” a Christmas cantata composed by Margaret Bonds, in collaboration with the Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, will be performed in Seattle for the first time. Written in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr, Bonds’ nine-movement choral work focuses on Balthazar, the “Brown King” of the Three Kings, who traveled to Bethlehem to witness the nativity scene.

Seasonal works composed and arranged by Black musicians round out this family holiday tradition, including works by Florence Price, R. Nathaniel Dett, Undine Smith Moore, Rosephanye Powell, Adolphus Hailstork, and Moses Hogan.

As always, a candlelit rendition of “Silent Night” will conclude the concert.