In 2005 Wolfram Graf composed variations on “Vom Himmel hoch…” for flute solo and asked me for the world premiere. For a few years there was unfortunately no opportunity - either the program didn't fit or the framework. In 2010 I finally got the work in a Christmas service in order to finally fulfill the obligation. And how surprised I was by the audience's reaction! Only enthusiasm met me and by the way I found it very nice to be able to occupy myself with one of our hymns in this way. So I asked some composers - at first only among friends - to try something similar. Here, too, I actually doubted that they would be accommodating and was surprised for the second time. Nobody refused my wish and most of them immediately had a favorite song in their heads. Eventually the project spilled over the ocean and composers from outside Europe also took part. Finally, "Vom Himmel hoch ..." became independent and so many contemporary composers, including Heinrich Hartl, Barbara Heller, Tina Ternes, Helmut Bieler, Dorothee Eberhardt and Daniel Dorff, have created free arrangements of Christmas carols for me in recent years. Among them are well-known such as “Silent Night” and “O You Fröhliche”, but also less well-known ones such as “O Savior tear open the heavens”, “Masters in this Hall” or “Welcome to us, Lord Christ”. The result was a CD with some of the works from the first few years, and at CANTICUS in Hamburg, two volumes with a large part of the new literature that has been created in this way have come out. We are currently working on the third volume.