Outstanding first release by a major new force in New Zealand choral music, Musica Sacra, led by Musical Director Indra Hughes.

Indra Hughes is widely recognized as one of New Zealand's most versatile and respected musicians. He came to Auckland in 1995 after his early training at the Cathedral in Blackburn, Lancashire and at Oriel College, Oxford, where he was Organ Scholar and also took a degree in Law, to take up the position of Organist and Director of Music at Auckland Cathedral.

A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, he holds the Gerald Knight Memorial Prize for the highest marks in the RCO Choir Training Diploma Examinations. He has twice directed the music for Her Majesty the Queen, first in Oxford and then in 1995 at the great service of thanksgiving marking the opening of the completed cathedral in Auckland.

"…an unusually good issue of Christmas music…superbly sung…Even if you already have a collection of Christmas recordings, don't pass this one by. It is one of the best I have heard, both in choice of carols and in quality of performance." - Christopher Moore

"Christmas Carol CDs don't come better than this. The Auckland unaccompanied 8-part chamber choir under Indra Hughes sing with such joy and vitality compared with the over-churchy aloofness of many carol recitals. Their opening track springs to life with such spontaneity and crisp energy. All is underpinned by fine choral technique and an ability to match style to period as in the fine account of two renaissance motets by Victoria. Hughes's repertoire selection balances old and new perfectly…fresh-sounding descants are finely floated by the sopranos…all recorded with warm reverberance." - Ian Dando in the Christchurch Press