On Dec. 3 and 4, Jesuit High School Sacramento hosted its 15th annual “Lessons & Carols” performances. The voices of the Jesuit and St. Francis High School chamber choirs joined to fill the Chapel of the North American Martyrs with harmony and hope.

“Lessons and Carols is really a Jesuit tradition to bring in the Advent and Christmas season,” Choral Director Mr. David Vanderbout said. “The whole purpose is to use this connection between music and words to show the true meaning of this season.”

“Lessons & Carols” includes 15 carols. Multiple speakers from the schools read nine poems and passages that serve as the “lessons,” all of which help those in attendance to reflect on how we spend our time during the Advent season.

In his first year at Jesuit, Mr. Vanderbout has embraced this tradition, and thanks to their hard work, he and the Chamber Choir put on a performance of which they are proud.

“It’s a wonderful Jesuit tradition and I’m so happy to be a part of it,” Mr. Vanderbout said. “ It’s really exciting to be a part of this and get to actually see it full-fledged with the audience and everything like that. I’m really proud of our singers and everyone that’s worked on it.”

The Jesuit Chamber Choir practiced tirelessly leading up to the event.

“The event went really well; we’ve been putting in a lot of work for the past four to five months,” Chamber Choir Singer Nicholas Contreras ’24 said. “It felt really great to see it all come together.”

Concert Choir Singer Aidan Clough ’24 believes that the collaboration between the Jesuit and SFHS choirs elevated the performance.  

“My favorite part of the performance was just coming together with all the choirs, especially St. Francis, combined together and just singing as one,” Aidan said. “The sound just becomes better as our voices come together.”

Jesuit’s and SFHS’s chamber choirs didn’t have much time to collaborate prior to the event, but that didn’t stop their performance from coming together in perfect harmony.

“The camaraderie and the way our community worked together to put all of these pieces that they’ve been working on separately together so quickly [was a success],” Mr. Vanderbout said. “It’s one thing to work on them individually, but when we put them all together and at such a high level; it’s something to be very proud of.”

Jesuit’s and SFHS’s latest “Lessons & Carols” performance was loved by the audience and performers. The commitment and hard work of all participants paid off to produce an event worthy of the program’s pride.