Denison University's Swasey Chapel will welcome college and community members for a traditional "Candlelight Lessons and Carols" service at 8 p.m. on Thursday (Dec. 6). This service, jointly sponsored by the department of music and the Office for Religious Life, is the University's celebration of Christmas. The chapel chimes will peal each hour from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. preceding the service. The Collegium Musicum, a vocal ensemble directed by Stephen Caracciolo, will provide special music for this service.

The evening begins with a traditional procession of light and the singing of the 15th-century plainchant, "O, Come, O Come Immanuel." The program also features numerous chants, liturgical vestments for the choir, choral music, congregational carol singing and biblical readings. The readings recall the story of humanity's fall from grace, prophetic visions of the coming of the Messiah and the birth of Christ and are the same lessons and prayers heard at King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England, each Christmas Eve.

Among the readers at this year's service are: seniors Jimmy Clawson and Marianne Sevachko and junior Diana Fright; Tina J. Knobel, wife of Denison President Dale Knobel; and faculty members Professor Anthony J. Lisska, Honors Program director, Associate Professor Lyn S. Robertson, chair of education department andVillage councilwoman, Professor Samuel Thios, psychology department and vice president for student affairs, and the Rev. Dr. David Ball, director of religious life and service learning.

The Collegium Musicum is a chamber choir devoted to the study and performance of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque literature. Singers in the choir represent a diverse cross section of students from the University's many academic majors.

Caracciolo is currently on the faculty at Denison and at The Columbus Academy. A composer whose works have been published, recorded and performed throughout the United States and Europe, he has been awarded the prestigious Individual Artist's Fellowship in Composition from the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Caracciolo also is the director of the Bel Canto Singers, a chamber choir of professional singers in Columbus devoted to early music. He holds degrees from Capital University and Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

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Barbara Stambaugh

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