Explore the latest musical journey from James A Norkawich. Discover what makes these new releases stand out and why they're a must-listen for all fans. Stay tuned for updates, behind-the-scenes stories, and more!

🎄✨ Under the Mistletoe Lights – A Romantic New Chapter in the Sound of Christmas

By James A. Norkawich | October 2025

Just when it seemed the season couldn’t get any brighter, pianist, composer, and producer James A. Norkawich — affectionately known as Mr. Christmas — adds one more shining star to his 2025 holiday collection: Under the Mistletoe Lights.

Originally planned as Now That’s What I Call James A. Norkawich Christmas Music, this album took on a life of its own — transforming into something more soulful, more intimate, and more timeless than ever imagined.

“As the music evolved, I realized it wasn’t just a compilation — it was a feeling,” Norkawich says. “It became about the glow of lights, the warmth of togetherness, and the romance that fills the air when the season arrives. Under the Mistletoe Lights captures that magic.”

 

💫 A Blend of Passion, Style, and Holiday Soul

This album blends smooth jazz, soulful pop, and classical crossover elegance into a sonic holiday experience that’s both modern and nostalgic. With lush piano arrangements, shimmering strings, heartfelt harmonies, and the pulse of live rhythm, Under the Mistletoe Lights evokes the cozy sparkle of fireside gatherings and candlelit Christmas nights.

It’s a record that feels cinematic yet deeply personal — made for couples sharing a quiet evening, friends celebrating the season, and anyone who believes that Christmas should be felt as much as it’s heard.

 

🎁 A Fifth Gift for the Season

Under the Mistletoe Lights joins Norkawich’s other four 2025 Christmas releases — This Christmas Is Forever, Christmas Forever More, A Norkawich Family Christmas, and Christmas Enchantment — creating an unparalleled four-album holiday suite that celebrates faith, love, reflection, and joy.

Each album tells a different story, but Under the Mistletoe Lights stands apart for its romantic undertones, sensual energy, and emotional honesty. It’s the album that reminds us that even in the busiest time of year, there’s always room for connection, warmth, and the light that love brings.

 

🎧 Available Everywhere October 29, 2025

Stream Under the Mistletoe Lights beginning October 29, 2025, on all major platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, Pandora, and more.

It’s more than just another Christmas album — it’s an experience, a memory, and a soundtrack for the moments that matter most.

 

📣 Follow James A. Norkawich

🌐 www.jamesanorkawich.com
🎧 Spotify
🍏 Apple Music | 🎥 YouTube | 💿 Amazon Music
📱 Instagram: @jamesanorkawich
📘 Facebook: @jamesanorkawich
🕊️ X (Twitter): @JNorkawichMusic

🏆 James A. Norkawich Receives the 2025 President’s Award for Excellence in Music and Scoring

This year, the Maple Crown Music Honors President’s Award has been presented to James A. Norkawich — American pianist, composer, arranger, and producer — for his exceptional achievements in performance, composition, and scoring across multiple genres.

Recognized internationally as Mr. Christmas and America’s Composer, Norkawich has built a prolific career blending jazz, classical crossover, gospel, and cinematic scoring, while maintaining a deeply emotional connection to the listener.

“James A. Norkawich exemplifies what this award stands for,” said the Maple Crown committee chair in a statement. “His ability to blend technical brilliance with emotional depth, while using music as a tool for healing and unity, represents the highest ideals of artistry and purpose.”

With a discography spanning more than a dozen albums — including Hometown Homecoming, Christmas Magic, Lighthouse, and his 2025 releases This Christmas Is Forever, Christmas Forever More, A Norkawich Family Christmas, and Under the Mistletoe Lights — Norkawich continues to redefine what it means to create meaningful, timeless music in the modern era.

Beyond his recordings, Norkawich is also the founder of The Lighthouse Project, a Christian-based organization that promotes mental health and healing through music and the arts, reaching schools, veterans, and senior communities across North America. His leadership in this space has positioned him as one of today’s most compassionate and visionary artists.

“To receive the President’s Award from such a respected institution is deeply humbling,” said Norkawich. “Music has always been my way of communicating faith, hope, and the beauty of life itself. To be recognized for that purpose means more than words can express.”

**❄️ At the Intersection of Winter and Memory:

James A. Norkawich Unveils Steinway and Snowflakes**

In a world saturated with holiday playlists and seasonal singles, few artists manage to carve out a truly original sonic identity—one that feels both timeless and personal. But James A. Norkawich, known affectionately to many as Mr. Christmas and America’s Composer, has once again created something unmistakably his own.

With the upcoming release of Steinway and Snowflakes, Norkawich returns to the essence of what defines his winter catalog: emotional storytelling, cinematic beauty, and deeply expressive piano work that feels like gently falling snow captured in sound.

Set against the soft glow of a fireplace and the grandeur of a Steinway piano, this album is not just a collection of instrumental Christmas pieces—it is a portrait of memory, devotion, and the quiet magic of the season.

---

🎹 A Steinway at the Center of It All

Where many Christmas albums rely on lush orchestration or vocal features, Steinway and Snowflakes does the opposite. It strips the holiday soundscape down to its purest form:
one pianist, one instrument, and the space between notes.

The Steinway becomes the storyteller—its resonance rich, warm, and unhurried. Each track feels intentional, shaped by restraint rather than excess. Norkawich uses silence as effectively as he uses melody, allowing listeners to breathe in the moment.

The result is a winter album that doesn’t just accompany the season—it defines it.

---

❄️ A Sound of Memory and Reflection

At its core, Steinway and Snowflakes is an album about remembering.

Not the loud and glittering memories of the mall or the parade—but the quiet ones:

• A room lit by a single strand of Christmas lights

• A snowy night in Bridgeport, CT

• Family gathered around the tree

• The warmth of a mother’s voice

• The steady presence of a father who believed in music

• The feeling of being home

Every piece on this album carries those memories like footprints in fresh snow. Some tracks evoke a sense of longing; others wrap listeners in a nostalgic embrace. A few even carry the weight of grief, acknowledging that Christmas can be as much about remembering who is gone as celebrating who is here.

But the emotion is never heavy—only human.

---

🌨️ Dedicated to Those We’ve Loved and Lost

Among the album’s standout moments is a piece dedicated to Jackie Nuñez, a dear friend whose passing left a deep imprint on Norkawich’s heart. Her tribute track is quiet and reverent, built on simple voicings that swell with meaning as the melody unfolds.

It’s a reminder of one of Norkawich’s most enduring artistic beliefs:
love does not disappear; it transforms.

And the album reflects that.

---

✨ A Modern Artisan of Holiday Music

Over the past several years, Norkawich has built one of the most expansive Christmas catalogs of any modern composer. While others may treat holiday releases as novelties or side projects, his approach is entirely different.

For him, Christmas music is a calling—
a way to preserve memory, celebrate tradition, and offer emotional refuge to anyone who needs it.

Steinway and Snowflakes continues this legacy, but with a new level of intimacy. If his past Christmas albums painted sweeping murals, this one sketches delicate portraits—small but profound.

---

🎧 The Impact: Music for a Season That Moves Us All

Listeners who carve out time for Steinway and Snowflakes will find a kind of stillness the modern world rarely allows. It is an album built for:

• quiet nights

• snowfall

• reflection

• healing

• candlelit rooms

• late December moments when the world softens

It’s the soundtrack to sitting by a window and watching winter unfold.
It’s the music of memory—but also of hope.

In its simplicity, the album becomes universal.

---

❄️ A New Christmas Classic

As December approaches, Steinway and Snowflakes is poised to become one of Norkawich’s signature releases—a reminder that holiday music doesn’t need to be loud to be powerful or orchestrally complex to be meaningful.

Sometimes, all it takes is a Steinway piano, a snowfall, and a composer unafraid to feel.

With this album, James A. Norkawich once again proves why he has become a defining voice of Christmas music in America—and why his work continues to resonate with audiences around the world.

More Steinway and More Snowflakes

James A. Norkawich Deepens His Signature Christmas Sound

With More Steinway and More Snowflakes, pianist, composer, and producer James A. Norkawich returns to the heart of what has become one of his most beloved musical worlds: intimate piano, timeless Christmas melodies, and the quiet magic of winter.

Following the success of Steinway and Snowflakes, this new release is not simply a sequel—it is a deeper, more reflective continuation. Where the first album introduced listeners to a warm, elegant holiday soundscape, More Steinway and More Snowflakes leans further into nuance, emotion, and musical storytelling. It is an album designed for snowy evenings, glowing fireplaces, and moments of stillness during the busiest season of the year.

At the center of the album is Norkawich’s unmistakable relationship with the Steinway grand piano. Every track places the instrument front and center—breathing, singing, and speaking with clarity and restraint. The performances are expressive yet unforced, allowing the natural beauty of the piano to carry familiar melodies and original themes alike. Subtle reharmonizations, classical influences, jazz voicings, and lyrical phrasing give the music depth while preserving its accessibility.

What makes More Steinway and More Snowflakes especially compelling is its sense of atmosphere. This is not background music—it is immersive. You can hear the space around the piano, the resonance of the room, and the intention behind every note. Snowfall feels slower here. Time feels suspended. The album invites listeners to pause, reflect, and reconnect—with memories, with loved ones, and with the quieter emotions that often get lost during the holidays.

For Norkawich, Christmas music has always been more than tradition; it is storytelling. Growing up in Connecticut, surrounded by family, faith, and seasonal rituals, he developed a deep emotional connection to the sounds of Christmas. That connection has grown into a signature style that blends nostalgia with sophistication—honoring the past while speaking to the present. More Steinway and More Snowflakes continues that mission with confidence and grace.

This release also reinforces Norkawich’s identity as “Mr. Christmas,” a title earned through years of carefully crafted holiday albums that resonate far beyond December. His approach avoids excess and spectacle, choosing instead elegance, sincerity, and musicianship. The result is an album that feels personal yet universal—perfect for quiet mornings, late nights, and everything in between.

Ultimately, More Steinway and More Snowflakes is about feeling. It’s about the hush of freshly fallen snow, the glow of lights through a window, and the memories that return when a single piano note hangs in the air. It is Christmas, distilled to its purest form—one Steinway, one moment at a time.

More Steinway and More Snowflakes is available now on all major streaming platforms.