On New Year’s Eve 2000, as we drove home from an Ars Choralis concert, Barbara asked me to write a libretto for a short piece. She had been commissioned by St. Gregory’s church in Woodstock, NY for their Woodstock Cycle, featuring Bible stories set to music. Barbara wanted to use the Magnificat, and that winter we wrote Mary in the Garden. The story of Mary and the Angel Gabriel. Her disbelief when he tells her she will have God’s baby, giving way to unsurpassed joy. All the while, the chorus sings “Every child is a gift from God / Every mother is blessed.” Mary in the Garden was performed at St. Gregory’s A-frame church the next year.

We decided to go on and tell more of the story, to reimagine the historical characters and invent new ones. We gave Joseph and Mary beautiful arias to express a mother’s and a father’s love. We invented the Innkeeper and his wife and a lonely, questing shepherd. We worked together weekly to create a one-act version of Miracle in Bethlehem, which Ars Choralis produced and performed in 2003. Each time we saw it performed, we learned and went back to work, adding more characters, more resonance to the story. The next iteration, in 2013, was a full two-act opera. We saw what was needed and worked another five years to make it better. The 2018 performances by Ars Choralis brought it to life again for us. Those ephemeral concerts were so thrilling, I had to create a permanent record. I produced the recording in July 2022. Barbara and I are delighted by the results.

We were fortunate all along the 20-year path of creation to have pianist Kristen Tuttman, cellist Erica Pickhardt and violinist Liz Silver play our music. I want to give a shout-out to them and to all the extraordinary singers of Ars Choralis who helped shape the opera, inhabiting characters and giving them voice. You brought us here.