Hanover Theatre Christmas album includes traditional hymns and carols

BY BILL DOYLE  | CFP CORRESPONDENT

Christmas music is Annie Kerins’ favorite music.
“I like anything that brings my family together and brings community together,” she said, “and for me, Christmas is a very nostalgic, warm time and so I think that Christmas music is the perfect sort of cherry on top to one of my favorite seasons.”
Ms. Kerins does consulting and liaison work with the marketing staff at The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts and last fall she suggested producing a Christmas album to promote the theater. There wasn’t enough time to finish the theater’s first music album before last Christmas, but it’s available now. The six recording sessions began in October 2021 and finished last June, all at Hanover Theatre. Editing the album was completed in time for the album to be released for a Christmas-in-July event.
“Any time I can celebrate Christmas, I will,” Ms. Kerins said.
It’s titled, “Holidays at The Hanover Theatre Volume 1.”
Ms. Kerins listens to the album’s songs while driving.
“I just feel at peace when I hear them,” she said. “That sounds very cheesy, but I find, especially the choir pieces, like ‘Crown of Roses,’ the way that came together, the voices just sound so lovely and then we have the Steinway piano underscoring that piece, which is a very special instrument that was donated to the theater that I am really happy that we were able to include on two of the tracks.”
Kurt Blomstrom, Dr. Jonathan Kleefield and Timothy Evans took turns playing the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ for six songs.  
“It’s just really special,” Ms. Kerins said, “to hear the different layers and different songs that come out of that instrument. It’s a very beautiful instrument.”
Other songs featured violin, piano, choir vocals and brass instruments.
Ms. Kerins served as project coordinator and her husband, Steve Gagliastro, was music director for the 12-song album.
Ms. Kerins is also a cantor for Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Worcester and Mr. Gagliastro is a cantor for St. Brigid Parish and Our Lady of the Assumption in Millbury. Mr. Gagliastro teaches music at Worcester State University, and he sings at funerals at several area churches, most often at Our Lady of the Angels.
Mr. Gagliastro enjoys singing Christmas hymns at Masses. “I certainly hear the congregation singing more at Christmastime,” he said, “because of the familiarity and the love of these pieces.”
Radio stations that play Christmas music this time of year usually steer away from most religious songs. Ms. Kerins and Mr. Gagliastro, on the other hand, made sure to include some in the album, including “Away in a Manger,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “We Three Kings,” as well as “Children, Go Where I Send Thee,” a traditional African American spiritual song structured similarly to the “Twelve Days of Christmas.”
“The fact that Steve and I are both associated with the Church,” Ms. Kerins said, “we have a personal connection to this music. So that was important to us and we wanted pieces that maybe you’ve heard less outside of the church.”
Mr. Gagliastro played trombone and trumpet in “Away in a Manger.”
The “Wexford Carol,” a traditional Irish Christmas carol about the nativity of Jesus Christ, is Ms. Kerins’ favorite song on the album because it’s a quartet with violin, one of her favorite instruments, and it uses an arrangement that her husband first did a couple of years ago at Our Lady of the Angels. Ms. Kerins and Mr. Gagliastro joined Raymond B. Johnson and Marta Rymer, who also played violin, to sing it.
The album includes  Tchaikovsky’s “Crown of Roses” and Gustav Holst’s arrangement of “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” a hymn originally used to prepare members of the church for communion.
“There are a lot of pieces that we’ve sung in choirs over the years at Christmas Masses,” Ms. Kerins said, “that we thought would be perfect to share with the community.”
The album also includes “Concerto No. 4 ‘Winter’ Movement II,” “Up on the Housetop,” “I Saw Three Ships,” “Merry Christmas” and “The Toast.”
Ms. Kerins thought a Christmas album might be successful because she had helped record songs at the theater during the height of the pandemic in 2020 for “A Christmas Carol Reimagined,” a filmed virtual adaptation. Ms. Kerins played several roles and Mr. Gagliastro played Scrooge in the film, which was shown online and at the Jean McDonough Arts Center.
“I knew we had the capacity in house to record at the theater,” she said, “and that it came out lovely for the filmed version.”
For the album, Mr. Gagliastro put together choirs with Hanover volunteers and employees, conservatory students and faculty, members of a former carol group and his current and former Worcester State students. Many volunteered their services.
Mr. Gagliastro credited sound engineer Nick Joyce with helping bring out the best in the album.
Ms. Kerins and Mr. Gagliastro also play key roles in another Christmas production at The Hanover Theatre. For the annual production of “A Christmas Carol,” which will be performed Dec. 16-23, they serve as associate directors and play the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig, Ebenezer Scrooge’s jolly employer and the employer’s wife during the Christmas Past sequence. Mr. Gagliastro is also assistant director of music for the performance.
Ms. Kerins is a freelance artist who has appeared in commercials and on the stage and also helps connect students with career opportunities for the Blackstone Valley Hub for Workforce Development.
“We called it Volume 1 in hopes that there might be a Volume 2,” Mr. Gagliastro said. “We’ll see how it’s received, but it seems to get a good reaction from the folks who have heard it.”

– CDs and USB drives of “Holidays at The Hanover Theatre Volume 1” cost $20 for one or $30 for two, tax included, and are available at The Hanover Theatre box office at 2 Southbridge St. or online at thehanovertheatre.org/holidays-at-the-hanover-theatre-volume-1.