Even Santa Fell In Love: Piano/Vocal/Chords

This collection pairs accessibility with genuine musicality, offering pianists and singers a curated set of seasonal pieces that work equally well in recital, ensemble, or casual performance settings. The mix of sacred standards, secular classics, and Brickman originals gives you flexibility in programming without requiring multiple books. The chord notations make this useful for both formal arrangements and spontaneous accompaniment, expanding its value beyond solo piano.

These pieces create an atmosphere of quiet reflection and warmth. Whether moving through familiar hymns or Brickman's original compositions, the music emphasizes emotional clarity over technical display, making space for both the performer's artistry and the listener's own memories and associations with the season.

This book serves pianists who perform seasonal music in churches, studios, theaters, and concert settings, as well as singer-pianists who need reliable, singable arrangements for holiday performances. It works for intermediate to advanced pianists comfortable reading chord symbols and adapting written parts to match a vocalist's range and phrasing.

• Let the lyrical quality of each melody guide your phrasing; these pieces reward singers and listeners who hear the music as song, not just notes on a page.
• Use the chord charts to explore voicing options that suit your touch and the room's acoustics, especially in pieces like 'Even Santa Fell in Love' where harmonic color matters.
• Balance between the written arrangement and your own interpretive choices. Brickman's style invites personalization without requiring strict adherence to every dynamic marking.
• In pieces that blend sacred and secular content, consider your performance context when deciding on tempo and emotional weight; some rooms and occasions call for gentle restraint, others for fuller expression.

Program selections from this book as standalone pieces in recitals, as accompaniments for guest singers, or as opening and closing numbers in larger seasonal concerts. The diversity of styles means you can build a complete holiday program from this single resource, or layer individual pieces into a larger concert design. Early September is an ideal time to begin learning these pieces for holiday season work.

• Reading and interpreting lead sheet notation with chord symbols
• Sight-reading across multiple clefs and accompanying voices
• Voicing chords in various registers to support different vocal ranges
• Balancing melody line against harmonic accompaniment
• Adapting published arrangements to fit the acoustic and emotional needs of specific performance spaces