ROSE ENSEMBLE: ALL-AMERICAN Beginning Thursday: Hear this St. Paul-based ensemble of 11 singers (and four instrumentalists) perform in English for a change. While much of their early-music repertoire is in Italian, French or German, the Rose is celebrating the holidays and a new CD, "And Glory Shone Around," that features American carols, Shaker hymns and Southern harmony singing from the 18th and 19th centuries. They range from the earthy ("Pretty Home," an 1849 song attributed to Sister Patsy Williamson, an African-American Shaker from Pleasant Hill, Ky.), to the "old-timey" ("Still Water"). In many Rose Ensemble CDs, "we are always trying the best to avoid letting our American accents get in the way of good English diction," said artistic director Jordan Sramek, who spent a week last year poring over old hymnals and music books at the Library of Congress to assemble the song list. "In this case we had to actually throw on an American accent." (Four Twin Cities performances: 7:30 p.m. Thu. at Colonial Church of Edina; 8 p.m. Dec. 20 at Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis; 2 p.m. Dec. 21 at Church of the Nativity in St. Paul and 7 p.m. Dec. 23 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater. Also 7:30 p.m. Dec. 22 at Cathedral of Christ the King in Superior, Wis. $17-$35. 651-225-4340, or roseensemble.org.)
CLAUDE PECK
