The St. Charles Singers, led by founder and music director Jeffrey Hunt, will be joined by virtuoso Chicago guitarist Goran Ivanovic for the mixed-voice chamber choir's 41st annual Candlelight Carols program.

The program, themed “Celebrating A World of Carols,” embraces 16 seasonal songs, most of them new to the St. Charles Singers repertoire, by composers and arrangers from the UK, continental Europe, and the US, including the greater Chicago area.

Audiences will hear seven works for choir and guitar, including world and local premieres.

“Guitar brings a beautifully delicate sound to the program,” choirmaster Hunt says. “It’s spare and elegant, almost like the harp, but exciting in its own way.

“Each year, I’m looking for sparkling new musical Christmas ornaments to surprise and delight our audiences,” Hunt says. “This year, many of these ornaments take the shape of the guitar.”

Croatian-born guitarist Ivanovic has been hailed as an artist whose “stirring style incorporates jazz, traditional Balkan, flamenco and classical styles” (Chicago Sun-Times) and as “a multiculti wunderkind” (New City).