7th Street Concerts’ “Luz de Navidad” Puts an Immigrant Spin on the Nativity Story

December 8, 2025

Lawrence Toppman

By Lawrence Toppman

Last weekend, the “Messiah” came again on South Tryon Street. The Sugar Plum Fairy fish-dived into the arms of her “Nutcracker” cavalier four blocks further north. But I wonder if a hundred people crammed into the Parish Hall of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church didn’t have the most fun.

I was one of them, watching the first performance of four in the 2025-26 season by 7^th Street Concerts. For 75 minutes, a half-dozen instrumentalists, two singers and an impassioned speaker intertwined music from Spain and Latin America with poems of hope tied to journeys by families in search of shelter from persecution. One narrative followed immigrants from below our southern border, as they sought safety and a better life in the United States; the other tracked Joseph and Mary as they sought a place to bring the infant Jesus into the world.

The ensemble in “Luz de Navidad” (“Light of Christmas”) felt comfortably familiar to those of us who’ve attended Bach Akademie Charlotte concerts each spring – or, starting in 2026, winter, with the inaugural Winterfest.

Half the performers came from BAC stages, and BAC oboist Kristin Olson is artistic and executive director of 7^th Street. But Salomé Sandoval, guest artistic coordinator for this show, took us into areas Bach likely never knew. (She also sang in a mellow mezzo while soloing on lute.)

We began in the 20^th century, with a chamber arrangement of Arturo Márquez’ “Danzon No.2” from Mexico, then rocketed back to the 18^th century and stayed there. The lone exception, a brief motet by Portuguese-Mexican composer Gaspar Fernandes in the Nahuatl Aztec language, gave us a chance to hear Roxan Jurkevich rock exotic wooden percussion instruments.

Local actress Banu Valladares wrote and delivered the poems, which wove just enough more-or-less intelligible Spanish into English texts to make us feel bicultural. They dealt with a subject that has fragmented America forever, especially now, and could have felt somber as a result. But they, like the music, resolved in joy.

Guatemala’s Rafael Castellanos, who died the same year as Mozart (1791), gave us a castanet-snapping reason to tap our feet in “Oygan una Xacarilla,” or “Listen to a Xacarilla.” But the dancing in homage to the Nativity didn’t stop there.

The song “El Pastor,” in which vocalist Nicholas Garza floated ethereal high notes in the traditional Mexican style, can best be described as a Christian tango. The final “Ay andar, a tocar, a cantar, a baylar” (sic) – “Let’s go, let’s play, let’s sing, let’s dance” – proved Bach’s Peruvian contemporary Juan de Araujo knew raucous celebrations pay homage to Jesus’ birth as much as reverent ones.

This series has its roots in Center City Concerts, performances at St. Peter’s – mostly at lunchtime, when I went to them – that died off in the pandemic. The 7^th Street programs keep their classical roots while ranging into folk and Americana in January (a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. Day), Parisian café music in March and a Persian fairy tale in April, complete with storytelling and hand-drawn animation.

Charlotte doesn’t have as wide-ranging a chamber music scene as I could wish. The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art has offered its Music and Museum series for years; Providence United Methodist Church has done the same with its underpublicized Chamber Music Recital Series. Charlotte Symphony Orchestra musicians appear in recitals around town from time to time.

So I’m glad to see 7^th Street Concerts join the pack. There’s nothing quite like hearing a small group fill a small room with a big sound, especially when the result inspires a grin from ear to ear.