W&L Hosts Annual Holiday Candlelight Service The Dec. 5 lessons and carols program in the University Chapel is free and open to the public and will also be streamed online.

Office of Communications and Public Affairs
November 14, 2024

Washington and Lee University’s annual Christmas Candlelight Service featuring the University Singers will be held on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. in the University Chapel.

The performance is free and open to the public and no tickets are required. The event will also be streamed online at go.wlu.edu/livestream.

The Candlelight Service is an annual tradition at W&L dating back more than 80 years. The service weaves together the narration of the Christmas story through music, readings and carols, with music provided by the University Singers, conducted by Shane Lynch, associate professor of music and director of choral activities at W&L. William McCorkle, lecturer in music at W&L, will be the organist for the concert, leading the carols and rounding out the evening with a festive organ prelude and postlude.

The University Singers is an award-winning ensemble and continues to be recognized as one of the finest collegiate a capella choirs in the nation. Their annual Candlelight Service appearance is beloved by the campus community, as well as the Lexington and Rockbridge County communities. This year’s performance will feature traditional favorites and modern masterpieces, including Paul Christiansen’s “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” and the world debut of Richard Burchard’s new composition commissioned exclusively for the University Singers.

The Candlelight Service’s telling of the Incarnation through text and music spans countries and cultures, dating back to 1818, when Edward White Benson, later the Archbishop of Canterbury in England, drew up a service of lessons and carols for use on Christmas Eve in the wooden shed that served as his cathedral. In 1918, this service was adapted for use in the chapel of King’s College at the University of Cambridge, and by the early 1930s, the BBC had begun broadcasting the service on overseas programming. “Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” continues to be broadcast each year from King’s College Chapel at the University of Cambridge on Christmas Eve.