Introduction - Miranda Shepard - Glee Club President
Prologue - The Meaning of Christmas
A reading from the Book of Luke 2:8-20 – recited by Miranda Shepard over “Silent Night”; adapted from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.
Hodie Christus Natus est Benjamin Britten - Sung by The Dominoes
Today Christ is born, today the Savior has appeared, today the angels sing on earth, the archangels rejoice, today the righteous exult, saying: Glory to God in the highest. Alleluia!
Songs of the Nativity
Sacred songs that give voice to the mystery and marvel of Christ’s birth through chant, chorale, solo, and prayer, from medieval Europe to the present day.
Personent Hodie
Words from Piae Cantiones, 1582
Arranged by John Rutter
Let resound today the voices of children, joyfully praising He who is born to us and conceived in the virgin’s womb, given by the Most High God.
Lo, how a Rose e’er Blooming Michael Praetorius, 1571 - 1621
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
O Holy Night (Minuit, chrétiens)
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 - 1750
Adolphe Adam
French Verse sung by Miranda Shepard
I Believe (Quodlibet with the Bach-Gounod “Ave Maria”) - By Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl, and Al Stillman; Arranged by Stan Beard and Barry Tucker
In The Stillness of This Night
Selections by The Dominoes
Mary Did You Know?
Candlelight Carol
Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene, Arranged by Mac Huff
Words and Music By John Rutter
First Verse Solo - Joan Dimaya and Second Verse Solo - Kira Varela
Gesu Bambino
The Snow
Pietro A. Yon Solo sung by Scarlett Vaca
Music by Edward Elgar and Poem by C. Alice Elgar
James Redcay - Piano, Adeline Babon - First Violin , Johnum Palado - Second Violin
The finale of the first half of our program, The Snow is a winter meditation on purity of heart, transience, and the quiet endurance of the soul.
Tinsel, Tropics, and Tears
White Christmas Irving Berlin
Christmas On The Beach At Waikiki Words and Music by Marta Lynn Keen
Arranged by Romy Svader
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Phil Spector Solo by Maeve Barry - Class of 2026
Dedication Speech to the Class of 2026 Glee Club Members
Olivia Conti - Class of 2027
Finale – Sleigh Bells and Snowflakes
Carol of the Bells M. Leontovich; arr. by Peter J. Wilhousky
Ding Dong! Merrily On High! Old French Carol
The Sleigh (A la Russe) Richard Kountz; Arranged by Ralph L. Baldwin
Snow! (A Winter Celebration) Arranged by Teena Chin
Including Let it Snow!, A Marshmallow World, Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bells and Sleigh Ride
Four Traditional Carols
Joy to the World
Joy to the World! The Lord is come; let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and heaven and nature sing.
He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove; The glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love, And wonders of his love, and wonders, wonders of his love.
O Come All Ye Faithful
O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant; O come ye, o come ye to Bethlehem; Come and behold him, born the King of angels; O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord
Sing choirs of angels, sing in exultation; Sing all ye citizens of heaven above. Glory to God, in the highest; O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
The First Noel
The first Noel, the angels did say, Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay; In fields where they lay keeping their sheep, On a cold winter's night that was so deep. Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel.
They lookèd up and saw a star Shining in the east, beyond them far; And to the earth it gave great light, And so it continued both day and night. Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel.
Silent Night
Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright; Round yon Virgin Mother and Child; Holy infant so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent Night, Holy Night, Song of God love's pure light; Radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace; Jesus, Lord at thy birth, Jesus Lord at thy birth.
Acknowledgements
The Saint Dominic Academy Alma Mater
Lift your voices, lift your spirits. Sing with zest and love and glee! Boast of courage, truth and honor, taught at this Academy. Raise her Banner; wear her Emblem, pledge to God and country too. Keep her spirit, keep her counsel, She will always follow through! Saint Dominic Academy, we pledge our hearts in loyalty, Our Alma Mater here’s to thee, we love our school devotedly. May all our efforts during life, in all our triumphs and in strife, By the patron of our school blessed be, Saint Dominic Academy!
The Saint Dominic Academy Glee Club
The Glee Club is one of the largest and most honored activities at the Academy. Approximately twenty percent of Saint Dominic Academy students have been members of the Glee Club during Mr. Napoli’s 46 years at SDA.
The Glee Club has long been considered the one of the most accomplished all girls parochial school choirs in the Archdiocese and in the tri-state area. The Glee Club attended regional competitions every year from 1992 - 2018 and won Grand Championship awards in 14 of those 27 competitions.
In December, 2004, The Glee Club performed a Christmas Concert in the Winter Garden Atrium at the World Financial Center. They were one of the first choirs to perform at this historic site following its restoration after the September 11, 2001 attack on Lower Manhattan.
On December 26th, 2015, members of the Glee Club traveled to Rome and performed at a New Year’s Day, 2016, World Peace Day Papal Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
On May 26th, 2023, the Glee Club performed Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” with other treble choirs in Carnegie Hall. On June 29th, 2025, the Glee Club, along with the San Diego Women’s Choir, was part of a stellar matinee performance at Carnegie Hall, featuring songs by Gwyneth Walker, Katerina Gimon and Melissa Dunphy.
The Glee Club has sung six times at the annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular, opening for the renowned Rockettes.
The Dominoes
The Dominoes are Glee Club’s elite choir. The Dominoes have performed, by invitation, 13 times at Carnegie Hall. Other famous New York City venues they have performed at include the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the General Assembly of the United Nations, Saint Malachy’s Church in the theater district (the “Actor’s Chapel”), the Waldorf-Astoria, Rockefeller Center and Radio City.
In January 2008, the Dominoes were invited by the Barack Obama campaign to perform at Senator Obama’s appearance at Saint Peter’s College. The next day, the Dominoes sang for and met the future president.
The Dominoes performed with American composer Tim Janis at Caldwell College in April, 2010; Janis was so impressed with the choir that he arranged for the Dominoes to perform a featured number, Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song”, with international star André Rieu at the Nassau Coliseum in June, 2010. During the 2011 school year, the Dominoes performed live on Fox 5’s Good Day New York and News 12 New Jersey’s “Sounds of the Season”.
On March 1st, 2018, the Dominoes performed with the Newark Boys Chorus at Saint Peter’s University Church.
The Dominoes have sung twice as the featured liturgical choir at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart - the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. In December, 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Dominoes performed at the prestigious New York Athletic Club.
Locally, the Dominoes performed Christmas concerts for over twenty years at the Jersey City Women’s Club on Fairview Avenue, now Saint Dominic Academy’s Siena Hall, and many times at the Liberty House Restaurant’s “Snowflake Award Ceremony”, at various municipal tree lightings, for elderly members of the community and annually at the Cusack Care Center’s Blessing Tree Lighting and at the Mayor’s Annual Holiday Concert at the Landmark Loews Theater. Most recently, they performed in a concert, “In Open Arms”, a benefit concert for refugees, organized by the Cantigas Women's Choir and the United Synagogue of Hoboken.
The Dominoes, along with the Glee Club perform an annual concert with Saint Peter’s Prep’s Vox choir each May.
James Redcay – Pianist
A native of Allentown, Pennsylvania, James E. Redcay III currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of MidAmerica Productions (where he has worked since 2015), presenting large-scale classical performances at Carnegie Hall and throughout Europe as part of an annual season of concerts. A graduate of New York University, Redcay spent years in New York City as an accomplished pianist, composer and teacher, performing and composing for numerous concerts and institutions. During this time Redcay held the position of Composer-in-Residence at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. After graduating from NYU, Redcay moved abroad to Macao, where he taught music at the Conservatory of Macao and created and managed large-scale arts and entertainment programs and daily operations for Sands China Ltd., a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands. After six fruitful years, Redcay relocated to the United States. He now resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Joseph
P. Napoli - Director
of the Glee Club and The Dominoes
Joseph P. Napoli has taught at Saint Dominic Academy since 1979 and today marks the forty-seventh Saint Dominic Academy Christmas Concert under his direction. Mr. Napoli has also directed the Manhattan College Singers, Saint Peter’s College Glee Club and the Saint Dominic Academy Women’s Choir.
In 2005, the Council for American Private Education named Napoli New Jersey’s Non Public School Teacher of the Year. In 2006, he was honored as ItalianAmerican Educator of the year by the Bayonne Columbus Committee and was similarly honored by Jersey City’s Dante Alighieri Society in 2011. In November, 2011, Saint Dominic Academy honored Mr. Napoli with the Dominican Pillar Award. In September, 2015, the Cusack Care Center honored him as “a partner in caring” at their 12th annual Generations Benefit Luncheon.
Mr. Napoli’s choirs have made two recordings; “A Saint Dominic Academy Christmas” (Dominoes, 2002) and “Voices of Winter” (Women’s Choir, 2006). He lives in Hoboken with wife Rose and their dog, Benji.
Saint Dominic Academy Administration
Elizabeth Christou Woodall
Dr. Maureen Fonseca
Dr. Claudia Pope Bayne
Julie LaBrutto
Alyssa Ruiz
Dominque Fajardo
Sidney Uderani
Head of School
Associate Head of School
Associate Head of School
Dean of Teaching & Learning
Dean of School Culture
Director of Admissions
Director of Finance
Saint Dominic Academy Glee Club Board of Directors
Joseph P. Napoli
Stephanie Vargas Herrera
Miranda Shepard
Anya Vasudevan
Sofia Rodriguez
Mila Varela
Director
Assistant Director/ Business Manager
President
Vice President
Secretary
Stage Manager
First Sopranos
Olivia Pope-Bayne
Olivia Conti +*
Caitlin Espiritu
Salvina Davi
Emelina Dunn *
Isabella Galarza
Maeve George *
Sofia Gonzalez
Kayla Lac
Sophia Poston **
Sofia Rodriguez*
Miranda Shepard**
Izabella Rae Tamoro
Lily Torres *
Anya Vasudevan*
Sophia Woodford
Second Sopranos
Sarah Abraham
Izabella Perez-Bombino
Nicolett Borjas
Sophie Chapman *
Danielle Contreras
Joan Dimaya **
Marina Neris Fontanella
Sophia Lee *
Leia Molina Leigh
Alexis Manocchio *
Lauren Nguyen
Dia Parekh *
McKenzie Robinson
Camila Rosario
Sofia Santomauro *
Valerie Villacres
Metztli Villanueva
Scarlett Vaca +*
