After a two-year absence due to the pandemic, a holiday tradition is returning to Showplace Performance Centre at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 10th when the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra presents “A Holiday Welcome” featuring special musical guest James Westman.
Tickets, which are selling fast, are $45 for adults and $12 for students for all seats. They are available in person at the Showplace Box Office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, or online anytime at tickets.showplace.org (student tickets are only available online).
“Our holiday concerts are very special,” says music director and conductor Michael Newnham. “Geared to the entire family, we find a way of mixing the traditional with the popular. It’s a way of celebrating the season through sparkling, melodic and upbeat music anywhere from Tchaikovsky and the ‘Waltz King’ Johann Strauss to brilliant pop arrangements of familiar tunes and carols.”
The first half of the evening’s program focuses on classical works associated with the season, beginning with a performance of Johann Strauss Jr.’s Overture to “Die Fledermaus” followed by two selections from Handel’s Messiah, the Pastoral Symphony and The Trumpet Shall Sound, with the latter featuring baritone James Westman.
“This year, we are extremely fortunate to be joined by one of Canada’s vocal treasures, baritone James Westman,” Maestro Newnham says. “Mr. Westman’s career has taken him to opera houses and orchestras around the world, where he has made huge connections with audiences.”
The next piece to be performed is Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Fantasia on Greensleeves,” followed by “O Du Mein Holder Abendstern” (“Oh Thou my Fair Evening Star”) from Richard Wagner’s 1845 opera Tannhäuser, with Westman performing. Before the intermission, the orchestra will perform the introduction and adagio from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66a.
The second half of the evening’s program will see the orchestra perform popular seasonal favourites, beginning with Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival” followed by Richard Hayman’s orchestral arrangement of “Carol of the Bells” by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych.
The holiday musical spirit will then kick into high gear with Calvin Custer’s It’s Christmastime, a orchestral arrangement of a medley of well-known Christmas carols including “Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.”
Westman will then join the orchestra once again for Arthur Luck’s arrangement of Adolphe Adam’s “O Holy Night” followed by John Moss’s arrangement of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.”
To ensure the audience leaves Showplace with joyful holiday music on their lips as well as in their hearts, Westman will conclude the evening’s concert with sing-alongs of “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”.
“This will be a concert you and your family will not want to miss,” Maestro Newnham says.
“A Holiday Welcome” begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 10th at Showplace Performance Centre at 290 George Street North in downtown Peterborough. Note: there will be no pre-concert “Meet the Maestro” chat before this concert.
Tickets are $45 for adults and $12 for students for all seats and are available in person at the Showplace Box Office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, at the door one hour before the concert begins, or online anytime at tickets.showplace.org (student tickets are only available online).
VIDEO: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Fantasia on Greensleeves” – Santa Rosa Symphony
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-23 season.
