Chicago is home to one of the world’s early-music gems, The Newberry Consort. Perhaps the group’s biggest surprise hit was A Mexican Christmas, a now-beloved program that re-creates the Christmas music one would have heard in 1600s Mexico City—an eloquent counterpoint of nuns in their cloisters and the villancico bands in the plazas. A live recording of the Consort’s 2019 performance will be available on CD on Nov. 12, 2021 (parmarecordings.com). But this December there are four live concerts—one of them in Milwaukee—and there’s nothing like being there! A Mexican Christmas is performed in vaulted churches and is a great way to celebrate the season with family and children. —L.J.