For over 62 years, gen­er­a­tions of faith­ful pa­trons have de­clared: “Christ­mas be­gins with the Mar­i­onettes!” This De­cem­ber, the Mar­i­onettes Chorale re­turns to Queen’s Hall’s Winifred Atwell Au­di­to­ri­um from De­cem­ber 5 to 7, invit­ing au­di­ences to ring in the sea­son with their beloved hol­i­day tra­di­tion—a con­cert se­ries that con­tin­ues to warm hearts across the coun­try.

Across three pub­lic per­for­mances and one spe­cial mat­inée ex­clu­sive­ly for care homes, the Mar­i­onettes’ adult and youth choirs will present a joy­ful and soul-stir­ring pro­gramme of lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al Christ­mas favourites. Pa­trons can ex­pect a rich blend of tra­di­tion­al car­ols, clas­si­cal works, gospel, mu­si­cal the­atre, ca­lyp­so, parang, and oth­er sea­son­al se­lec­tions—a show­case of the mu­si­cal ex­cel­lence and vo­cal mas­tery they’ve come to ex­pect from the Chorale.

The pro­gramme al­so fea­tures some of the na­tion’s most beloved soloists—in­clud­ing Jacque­line John­son, Deb­bie Na­hous, Er­rol James, Khadi­ja Hug­gins, and oth­ers—along with tal­ent­ed ris­ing stars from the Youth Chorale. They will be joined by two very spe­cial guests: tenor Nigel Floyd and Payge Turn­er, the mul­ti-tal­ent­ed singer, song­writer and mu­si­cian who com­pet­ed in Sea­son 19 of NBC’s The Voice. Turn­er joins her moth­er, Jacque­line John­son, on­stage to per­form a piece spe­cial­ly arranged for this con­cert.

Lead­ing the choirs this sea­son are Artis­tic and Mu­si­cal Di­rec­tor Gret­ta Tay­lor, Joshua Joseph, and guest con­duc­tor Dr Nathan Na­gir—a Trinidad-born mu­si­cian and cur­rent fac­ul­ty mem­ber at Texas State Uni­ver­si­ty’s School of Mu­sic. Dr Na­gir made a mem­o­rable im­pres­sion dur­ing the Chorale’s Re­joice se­ries last Ju­ly, and his re­turn promis­es to bring fresh en­er­gy and flair to this year’s hol­i­day per­for­mances. This dy­nam­ic trio’s pas­sion and pre­ci­sion con­tin­ue to shape the Chorale’s sig­na­ture sound while nur­tur­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of mu­si­cal lead­er­ship.

Found­ed in 1963 and in­cor­po­rat­ed as a non-prof­it in 2005, the Mar­i­onettes Chorale is one of the Caribbean’s most dis­tin­guished per­form­ing arts groups. With a lega­cy span­ning six decades, they have earned ac­claim at home and abroad, pre­miered works by Caribbean and in­ter­na­tion­al com­posers, toured in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, and pro­duced eight full-length record­ings. Their Christ­mas con­cert is a cul­tur­al fix­ture, draw­ing au­di­ences of all ages who re­turn year af­ter year to be­gin their sea­son with the Mar­i­onettes.

As al­ways, the se­ries in­cludes a spe­cial week­end mat­inée for care homes across the coun­try, re­flect­ing the Chorale’s en­dur­ing com­mit­ment to out­reach and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice.

Per­for­mances take place at Queen’s Hall’s Winifred Atwell Au­di­to­ri­um on Fri­day, De­cem­ber 5 and Sat­ur­day, De­cem­ber 6 at 7 pm, and on Sun­day, De­cem­ber 7 at 5 pm. Tick­ets cost $200 for open seat­ing, $300 for re­served, and $400 for pre­mi­um re­served. They are avail­able from choir mem­bers and on­line at mar­i­onetteschorale.com/tick­ets through Sat­ur­day, No­vem­ber 29. Af­ter this date, all re­main­ing tick­ets will be sold ex­clu­sive­ly at the Queen’s Hall Box Of­fice.

For tick­et­ing and gen­er­al en­quiries, con­tact or­ders@mar­i­onetteschorale.com or What­sApp 790-1751 (Mon­day to Sat­ur­day, 9 am to 6 pm). The Queen’s Hall Box Of­fice can al­so be reached at 298-9089 or 376-5699, or on­line at queen­shalltt.com.

The 2025 Christ­mas se­ries, in­clud­ing the spe­cial mat­inée for care homes, is made pos­si­ble through the gen­er­ous sup­port of One Caribbean Me­dia Ltd, Flow (Colum­bus Com­mu­ni­ca­tions), AVIT Sup­port Ltd, and Mu­sic Ra­dio 97.1FM.