Santa Fe Women's Ensemble has been singing together for New Mexico audiences since 1981, and has performed all its Christmas concerts in the acoustically magnificent Loretta Chapel in Santa Fe. The 14-voice group performs seldom-heard and challenging music from all periods, and has commissioned 22 new works. The pieces on this Christmas album are from Christmas and Spring Offering concerts from 2003 to 2005. Dr. Linda Raney has directed the SFWE since 1988 and is director of music and organist at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe. There are 24 songs, some lightly accompanied, in this generous, eclectic collection. Jim Leininger's soaring 'Deo Gracias,' Karl Henning's 'Alleluia in D,' William Byrd's 'Non Nobis, Domaine,' Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 'What Can Lambkins Do,' Daniel Gawthrop's dissonant 'There Is Sweet Music,' Pavel Chesnokov's 'Otche nash' and Stuart McIntosh's 'Baloo Baleerie' are lovely, rarely-heard, unexpected selections for a Christmas album, but they work. Michael Larkin's 'Ave Maria,' 'Carol of the Drum,' Palestrina's 'Hodie Christus Natus Est,' 'Four Noels,' 'Il est ne, le divin Enfant,' 'Polish Christmas Carols' and Handl's 'O magnum mysterium' are more familiar and no less enjoyable. 'When the Savior Christ is born,' 'He is sleeping in a manger,' 'Sleep Thou, my Jewel,' Keith Christopher's 'Beyond Winter,' Naomi Stephan's 'Hodie' and Uzee Brown Jr.'s 'Oh, the Savior's Comin, Hallelu' are all relatively new to us, lovely and fine. A beautiful, impressive, eclectic holiday collection from one of New Mexico's finest women's ensembles!

Listen to Beyond Winter in RealAudio.

'A Celebration of Song' is the 13- to 14-voice SFWE's fourth CD under the direction of Dr. Linda Raney, released in honor of their 30th Anniversary Season. Featured are live pieces from Christmas and Spring Offering concerts from 2007 to 2010, including songs performed in Tuscany and Umbria during their 2008 tour of Italy. The repertoire varies from contemporary and commissioned works to folk songs and carols. There are 21 cuts here, and some of our favorites are commissioned works like Samuel Gordon's 'As I Lay Upon a Night' and 'Gaude virgo gratiosa,' Kinley Lange's 'Esto Les Digo' and Linda Rice Beck's 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo;' Bob Chilcott's 'Sanctus from A Little Jazz Mass,' the Korean folk/work song 'K'wae-jina Ching-ching Nah-neh,' Eleanor Daley's 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree,' Kenneth Jennings' 'Willows by the Water Side,' and traditional songs 'Rouse Good Folk' and 'Watching at Night,' arranged by Katherine Davis. There is some light piano and flute accompaniment. A beautiful live collection from the talented Santa Fe Women's Ensemble!

Listen to Rouse Good Folk in RealAudio.

This first CD by the Santa Fe Women's Ensemble focuses on music written about women. It specifically centers on the Virgin Mary, exploring her emotional maternal side and her spiritual transcendent aspects. The recording features six settings of the Ave Maria and includes that of Franz Biebl, Claudio Monteverdi and Gustav Holst. Also featured is a setting of the Stabat Mater by Dean Kerr Roush. The piece commissioned by the ensemble is for women's voices and solo cello.

This second CD is a collection of the group's favorite holiday music. It features one of their commissioned pieces 'With This Child' by Michael Maudlin as well as 'Ceremony of Carols' by Benjamin Britten. This collection includes both the familiar and unusual in a multitude of tonal colors from women's voices accompanied by harp, flute and saxophone. This fine group celebrates the beauty and diversity of music for women's voices.