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J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio is actually six separate cantatas that were designed to be performed in church on Christmas and the following feast-days (the annunciation to the shepherds, Dec. 26; the adoration of the shepherds, Dec. 27; Jesus' name day and circumcision, Jan. 1; the journey of the Magi (the Sunday after New Year's Day); and the feast of Epiphany).

Sacred and Profane is another Bay Area chorus that flies, or sings, underneath the radar. But in its 32-year existence, this Berkeley-based group (which still sports one original member) has been led by several well-regarded music directors, who have kept this community chamber chorus vital. For the last five years, their leader has been Rebecca Seeman, a director who approaches programming like a watchmaker.

New York, New York, a hell of a town: arts capital of the world and epicenter of American postclassical music since at least the days of George Gershwin. Think of the composers who lived and worked there from the 1940s on — Cage, Cowell, Thomson, Copland, Bernstein, Rorem, all the way down to younger generations like Bang on a Can, Nico Muhly, and the New Amsterdam composers. It’s almost easier to compile a list of major composers who aren’t from the Big Apple.