We spoke the other day with Brad Zimmerman of Kansas City, who had a long and distinguished career leading the Chestnut Theatre in Kansas City, when he told us about a company he’d just signed over to a new owner. After 42 years of running the Dickens Carolers, he was reclaiming Christmas for himself.
Brad Zimmerman
In 1984, as a fresh music graduate teaching music to junior high students, he got a call from a friend. Macy’s department store was looking for Christmas carolers to sing in their KC-area stores. Brad, a tenor, was invited to join an impromptu 4-voice choir to sing Friday nights, Saturdays, and Sundays, rotating among 8 Macy’s stores in the Kansas City area. The group did this for 2 years, and then Stix Baer & Fuller bought out Macy’s in the Kansas City scene. Instead of accepting that their holiday gig was over, they negotiated with the new owners. They persuaded them that Christmas wasn’t Christmas in Kansas City without the carollers, and they signed a new contract.
Brad then got on the phone (and his typewriter) and started to seek other opportunities for the quartet. First, there was a local shopping centre, then local hotels such as the Crown Centre and Country Club Plaza, and finally the Ritz-Carlton, which wanted singers 7 days a week, please.
The group, and later groups, were busy from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, creating the perfect holiday atmosphere. They dressed in costumes, first borrowed from the local theatre and then creating their own costume store to maintain their own look. They sang outside; they sang inside, whatever the situation demanded.
The Dickens Carolers
Brad said his phone was busy from August onwards with places scheduling their holiday gatherings. The smart ones booked a year in advance, and it wasn’t uncommon for the late requestors to be unsuccessful in seeking holiday song.
The Dickens Carolers: We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Brad said that they set up a standard repertoire of 55 holiday songs, both sacred and secular. Each 4-voice choir was expected to have these down pat and be able to switch from quartet to quartet – if the soprano for Group 2 was indisposed, the soprano from another group could switch in. This was something he planned deliberately. By setting up interchangeable quartets, he was less likely to have groups that couldn’t perform because of a missing member.
As a fresh graduate of a music program, he sought his first singers among university students, with an enticing poster headed: SINGER$. The dollar sign caught the students’ attention, and Brad could start building his choir.
Over time, they expanded their singing, telling stories and involving listeners in the holiday spirit. When a party seemed to be going flat, the group gave out their song list to the guests and invited them to choose what they’d like to hear next – that’s when the stories started, as people remembered songs that had been family favourites or that they particularly loved.
Although his first choristers were singers from the local music school, as the Dickens Carolers developed, returning singers bolstered their numbers. Not all carolers are professional or student singers – many are now in other professions but keep their voices alive through their participation. Lawyers, doctors, actors, and music teachers have all been part of the Dickens Carolers. Operatic baritone Daniel Belcher, for example, sang in the Dickens Carolers before going on to an international opera career. Hundreds of singers have added their voices to the Dickens Carolers’ success over the past 42 years.
Over the years, he’s seen changes in who hires his carolers. After hotels and malls, it became hotel catering departments, who added carolers to holiday party offerings, and, lately, senior centres. As senior centres burgeoned across the US, their need for entertainment gave rise to companies and agents that could organise entertainment for those centres, and so they call the Dickens Carolers. They also sing for private functions, although he noted that hosts often overestimated how many carols their guests wanted to hear before the refreshment bar called them away.
Some notable media hits include a 1990 appearance on Good Morning America with weatherman Spencer Christian and local news stories about Christmas.
When Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, visited Kansas City in 1993, the Dickens Carolers were part of her greeting entertainment.
In 2020, the Dickens Carolers appeared in the Hallmark movie My Sweet Holiday. Hallmark is based in Kansas City, so this was a particularly fortuitous linkup.
Brad estimates that he’s sung (tenor) in 75% of the Dickens Carolers’ performances. And if he doesn’t sing, he attends to check with the host that everything is as ordered.
They start their season the weekend before Thanksgiving in the US and end it on Christmas Eve. Although they get requests, they know from experience that post-Christmas, people don’t really want carolers at their parties!
One thing he makes sure of is that his singers are paid right. They are paid by the hour, and every performance starts with a 2-hour minimum guarantee. Even if a singer has multiple performances in a day, they are paid the 2-hour fee for each appearance. For singers, this is a real plus during the holiday season.
2015 was the company’s best year, with 55 employees and 250 bookings. Hiring the singers starts at $300 for four singers and goes up from there.
In creating their core carol book of 55 songs, they followed current taste. When they can’t find a version of a carol that worked for them, they make their own. Some singers arranged quartets, and these became part of the singers’ book, too.
The most requested song has been Adolphe Adam’s 19th-century carol O Holy Night, and Brad said his particular favourite was the 17th-century French carol Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella.
We were delighted to meet someone who has brought so much joy to the holiday season through their focus on the one audio addition that can make the season right. Brad’s decades of developing his choirs, repertoire, and audience have made Kansas City a place where the Christmas spirit lives on in song.
After 42 years as an integral part of Kansas City’s holiday scene, he decided to step back, and a new director is taking over for the 2026 season. Brad says bookings are already pouring in, and he forwards them to the new hands on the reins.
You can follow the Dickens Carolers on Facebook!
https://thedickenscarolers.com/
For more of the best in classical music, sign up for our E-Newsletter
