program note: A piece tied to the feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December, the day that, by tradition, opens the Christmas season and with it a frenzy of obsessive holiday shopping, while outside the first winter storms rage. The work sets these two forces against each other: the compulsive buying, the consumerist rush toward Christmas, and the indifferent fury of stormy winter nature. Scored for variable vocal forces, amateur singers included, the piece can gather any community of voices, turning a sacred celebration into a mirror of how ritual, commerce and weather collide each December.​​​