'Tis the season for holiday music, and while you can throw a stone and hit a Messiah just about anywhere in town right now, there are lots of other choral jewels to be found in and around NYC. Case in point: this week's annual Candlelight Christmas Concerts by the Voices of Ascension at Ascenion Church, on lower Fifth Avenue. Led by their longtime founder and director, Dennis Keene, this outstanding choir sang hymns and carols both familiar ("Away In a Manger" and "O Come, All Ye Faithful," both in the memorable arrangements by David Willcocks) and obscure (Luis de Victoria's stunning 16th-century hymn "O Magnum Mysterium").

Joining them was the young soprano Abigail Santos Villalobos, whom Keene discovered during an apprentice program at Santa Fe Opera last summer. She delivered an emotional, penetrating performance of selections from Handel's Giulio Cesare that was nothing short of stunning. Tumpeter Kevin Cobb provided a magical interlude with Purcell's Sonata in D, accompanied by Renee Anne Louprette on the Manton Memorial Organ. 

At the end, the entire audience joined the choir—whom Keene had spaced throughout the nave—to sing "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Silent Night." What better way to get into the holiday spirit?

More pics on the photo page.