The Promised Child : A Christmas Cantata

I was fairly new to the Ward and recently called as the Ward Organist. Following sacrament meeting in early September of 1985, the Chorister mentioned that she needed help with ideas for the Christmas Program. I thought she was asking me to write something, which I later learned she didn’t even know I was a composer. But, understanding what I thought she was asking, I replied, “Let me see what I can do.”

So, I went home and scoured the New Testament for every detail I could find about the Savior’s birth. I pondered deeply about what I had read. A few weeks later my husband and I went to said chorister’s house and “performed” a rough draft of my Christmas Cantata, The Promised Child. I wanted to be sure it met with her approval before I began writing it out, with pencil and paper, carefully enough to be read by the choir members.

The rest is history. Our Ward Choir presented the cantata that year for the Ward and also for the community. It has since been performed multiple times in multiple settings locally, as well as in various congregations in Idaho, Utah, California, North Carolina, Hawaii, and Japan. It continues to be very well loved.