Carol of the Bells is a song that has been a favorite of mine for many years. I’ve sort of been known for performing it around Christmas time as well, and so when I was writing music for my “Winter Symphony” album, I knew I wanted to include this song.
I wanted it to be a very cinematic version of the music, and so it’s with great pride that this music video turned out as beautiful as it did – because I feel that it fits the music so well. This music video features the beautiful and talented 16 year old Carolynne May Guinup as the ballerina. She endured some very cold weather dancing through the forest of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington in the month of November. Give her a thumbs up for that!
And YES, we did haul a real antique grand piano into the forest as well! Someone asked if it was “photoshopped”. No, indeed not.
MUSIC CREDITS
“Carol of the Bells”
Music by Mykola Leontovych
Arranged by Jennifer Thomas
Orchestrated by Glen Gabriel
Piano performed by Jennifer Thomas
Orchestra performed by players from the Utah Symphony and the Salt Lake Pops Orchestra
Mixed by Brian Vibberts
Mastered by Christofer Stannow
FILM PRODUCTION CREDITS
Jennifer Thomas – Pianist
Carolynne May Guinup – Ballerina
Ryan K. McNeal – Director
Tel Stewart – Cinematographer
Alex “Splice” Jones – Editor
Will Thomas – Drone Pilot
Kimberly Starkey – Production Assistant
Noelle McBride – Hair/Makeup (The Moore Theater scenes)
Thank you to:
Urban Grace Church (Ballet studio scenes), Tacoma, WA
The Moore Theater, Seattle, WA and the stage crew
Ballet costumes – Erin Ceragioli and Tacoma City Ballet
Jennifer’s tulle skirt – by IBCBoutique on Etsy
Debra Heesch (The Paramount Theater) for helping us get the Moore Theater
Ron Southworth (my dad) for helping us haul a 1,000 pound antique grand piano through the forest.
Carolyn Southworth (my mom) for watching our cute kiddos while we filmed.
Pentatonix – Carol of the bells guitar cover (Darth Fender)
Merry Christmas by Darth Fender I chose this beautiful piece of music, in the version by Pentatonix.
I used their videos to catch all the vocal parts, and arranged them for guitar.
All the sounds you’re hearing were obtained with guitars (and a bass), no other instruments were added in post production.
The only parts you’re not seeing in the video are some guitar fills that happen in a couple of points during the songs (too little to have a sense in the video) and the “charleston” sound that was recorded separately using the acoustic guitar
