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Sara Botkin's An Angel's Christmas demands your full attention. While its sound could be characterized as ethereal, it is an expansive and full-bodied ether. Ms. Botkin has a beautiful voice, and powerful. Classically trained, she can inflect and articulate and play the opera card, but she doesn't shy away from taking some risks with her arrangements and using technology to enhance her already great sound. On Adam Lay I-Bounden she uses a loop; it's a technique I would expect from DJ Clue or Mixmaster Mike, but I wasn't expecting to hear it from a high diva. And it works: she takes an interesting song, and makes it the most attention grabbing cut on the CD.

She also does a nice job on The Holly And The Ivy which mixes her classical articulation with a sort of Elton John style piano arrangement. Likewise, O Holy Night is highly stylized, and then softened by her breathy, contemporary tempo. And Silent Night, the finale and best selection on the CD, again takes advantage of both her classical and contemporary sensibilities. The majority of the selections on An Angel's Christmas are classical with a new age feel, but just a few of her arrangements have a vibrant impetuousness that bespeak a desire to break the bonds of "pure" classical music in favor of a stylistic fusion of high art and (dare I say it?) pop.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2003)

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From Ms. Botkin's Web site:

"A musician since age three, Ms. Botkin studied piano and voice at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She attended New York University and graduated from the University of Virginia with Highest Distinction earning a Bachelor of Arts degree."

"Helping to create the ethereal mood for An Angel's Christmas is Pittsburgh Symphony harpist Anne-Marguerite Michaud. The Juilliard graduate was principal harp of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra for six years before joining the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1988."

Sara Botkin

An Angel's Christmas

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Track List