of Congress , that is kind of a ‘ new grass ’ Nickel Creek-style band . And my band has performed with our state symphony five times . And so , through that , I ' m very interested in how charts are created , and how that whole process works .
And so , for the Christmas album in the Christmas service of last year , that you ' re referring to , we wanted to partner with the symphony as a blessing to our city and our state and these musicians because of COVID and their inability to perform . And so , we knew we were basically doing two Christmases . We were doing an online Christmas that was going out to all the people that could not attend Christmas . And we wanted that to be a very heightened event .
And then we were also doing live Christmas services . And so , we were trying to partner with the state symphony , but we couldn ' t get it done because of the COVID restrictions that they were under . They were not playing at all last year , especially not in a large group . So , we decided to create our own symphony . And so , throughout the Southeast , we went and created a 45-piece symphony . Orchestral music is very close to me . We have a great friend , named Jared Haschek , who is in Sydney , Australia . He does the string arranging for Hillsong , and we work very closely with him .
In partnership with Jared , we arranged the orchestra and then hired the musicians and then had them for three days for this broadcast event . Now , at the live services , we have all these LED walls and all this technical ability . We took snippets of video from the orchestra ,
Carol of the Bells and in certain spots and songs that were playing live , we would broadcast the orchestra on the screen to play along with every campus . So , it really gave every campus a larger-than-life experience .
[ WM ] Like I said , there ' s so much to work with and pull from in your area . And I don ' t think most people realize that . You give great place to instrumental excellence in the church , including solos . I cite your recording of “ Carol of the Bells ”. Can you tell us about this dynamic in the church ? And the reason I ' m asking that question is , a lot of churches sort of disparage solo work . To some churches it is almost fleshy . But you don ' t do that . So that ' s why I asked the question . The new Christmas project is just gorgeous . Can you tell us about it in general ? I will ask you about some specific songs next .
[ Chris ] Sure . So , on a typical Sunday , we ' re operating using a large volunteer base . We have a motto of ‘ doing simple well ’. We ' re amateur musicians that have learned to play