Max von Essen and Julia Murney Release 'O Holy Night' Single to Benefit Covenant House

Tony nominee Max von Essen and Broadway powerhouse Julia Murney have released a holiday single of "O Holy Night" to benefit Covenant House. The single is available on iTunes, Amazon and all digital outlets.

"Several holiday seasons ago" says Julia, "I was asked to do a benefit concert and when I saw Max was also on the roster, I basically bum rushed him until he said he would sing this John Bucchino arrangement with me. Now we try to sing it once a year anywhere that will have us. This year we decided to record it to raise money for Covenant House and to tweak the arrangement to make it more lush by using cello, harp and piano-and are thrilled that Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf, Kristi Shade and Deborah Abramson joined us."

She continues, "We hope people enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recording it-and how lovely to think that we can help the kids from Covenant House through the power of music. The slightly altered, more secular lyrics always really spoke to us too, now more than ever. We hope it inspires and uplifts others as much as it does us."

The track was recorded at Yellow Sound Lab by Matthias Winter. "O Holy Night" is arranged by Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf, and the vocal arrangement is by John Bucchino. Murney and Von Essen are joined on the track by musicians Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf on cello, Kristi Shade on harp and Deborah Abramson on piano. The artwork for the single was created by Robbie Rozelle.

Covenant House is the largest privately funded agency in the Americas providing shelter, food, immediate crisis care, and an array of other services to homeless and runaway youth. In addition to basic needs, Covenant House provides care to homeless youth aged 14-20 (certain locations care for youth as young as 13 & grown-ups as old as 24), designed to transition them into an independent adulthood free from the risk of future homelessness. Covenant House offers services including healthcare, educational support/GEDpreparation/college scholarships, job readiness and skills training programs, drug abuse treatment and prevention programs, legal services, mental health services, mother/child programs, transitional living programs, street outreach and aftercare. Learn more about Covenant House at www.covenanthouse.org.