St. Luke’s United Methodist Church Annual Christmas Festival

St. Luke’s United Methodist Church presents the annual Christmas Festival on Sunday, December 17 featuring music by rising young composer Taylor Scott Davis with full orchestra and choir at three services in the church’s main sanctuary. The Festival is free and open to all church members and the public at the traditional services at 8:30 a.m., 9:45 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Davis’s original arrangements for the festival include:

• Suite 1: “Journey Into Light”
• Suite 2: “Ring Out Wild Bells”
• “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” (from "A Choral Christmas")
• “Joy to the World: (also from "A Choral Christmas")
• “A Choral Christmas,” is the new album out Friday, Nov. 3 from Grammy-nominated VOCES8 on Decca Classics featuring Davis’s five-movement “Magnificat.” It is one of eight world premieres on the album. “Magnificat” will be premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City in May 2024. The VOCES8 album is packed full of choral/orchestral world premieres and fresh arrangements of favorite carols, including five by Davis, performed by the VOCES8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra.

For the Christmas Festival, classical musicians from the Houston area will comprise the orchestra, while the St. Luke’s Chancel Choir will sing. The church is known for its Fine Arts and Music Ministry headed by Director of Music and Fine Arts Sid Davis, which includes choirs, theater and visual arts. St. Luke’s also brings in some of the finest choral groups, musicians and conductors from the U.S. and around the world, including VOCES8, Conspirare, Howard Goodall, Ken Medema and Christina Wells, who was on “The Voice.” Davis is the father of Taylor Scott Davis and Chancel Choir member Cynthia Davis. Following in the musical footsteps of his parents, Taylor Davis is Director of Music and Worship at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano. 

Taylor Davis has also written and arranged for the Grammy-winning choir Conspirare and regularly collaborates with VOCES8 as well as chamber ensembles such as the English Chamber Orchestra and symphony orchestras around the world. He often conducts his own performances with players from top London orchestras and Fort Worth, Dallas, and Houston symphony orchestras. His ensemble music has been performed throughout the U.S., Europe, South America, and South Africa, and his gaming music has been played around the world.

An additional world premiere release arranged by Taylor Davis includes ‘Away in a Manger,’ featuring Jack Liebeck.