Christmas concert, candlelighting, more,
Celebrate holiday festivities the symphonic way with the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra.
On Sunday, Dec. 13, TSO presents “Christmas at the Perot,” a family concert show celebrating the holiday season with the TSO musicians, Texarkana Youth Symphony Orchestra, Texarkana Regional Chorale, Pleasant Grove High School Showstoppers and Santa Claus himself. The Perot Theatre concert starts at 4 p.m.
Included in this show is the introduction of the TSO’s fifth annual Celebrity Conductor Competition. The winning conductor guides the TSO for a song. The competitors, who’ve all been raising money for the TSO by getting votes in recent months, are Ruth Penney-Bell, Bob Bruggeman, Dr. Emily Cutrer and Suzy Irwin.
“For music, we’re going to a have a series of choral-orchestral pieces that will be staged with dancers, like we’ve had for the last five years,” said conductor Marc-André Bougie.
Three numbers, starting with “A Christmas Festival of Carols,” will be performed with the TYSO playing side-by-side. Versions of “Good King Wenceslas” and “Hallelujah Chorus” by Handel with the TYSO round out the first half.
“We’re going to have two parts this year. In the first part, we open up with a great piece of pops-sounding Christmas music, ‘A Christmas Fantasy’ by Dan Goeller,” Bougie said. After a couple more contemporary pieces, the TSO performs Schubert’s “Ave Maria” with the choir.
A short intermission gives everyone a
break and switches gears for the production. Then the show is back with a holiday favorite, “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas,” a Prokofiev number and Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter.” Music from the movie “Frozen” is on tap, as is “Winter Wonderland of Snow,” arranged by Mark Hayes, for the orchestra and choir.
“Then we’ll feature the winner of the celebrity conductor contest with ‘Sleigh Ride,’ as we usually do,” Bougie said. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “A Merry Christmas Sing-Along” round out the program.
Andrew Clark, the TSO’s executive director, says the staging is similar to previous years with the Showstoppers. “We’re happy to have them back,” he said, noting the TSO has a professional Santa on board this year, too. Photos with Santa will be available.
Last year, a freak downtown power outage sabotaged the TSO’s Christmas concert, but hopefully that will be avoided this year. “I promise the lights will stay on, or at least that’s what I’m told,” Clark said.
The TSO’s conductor competition has become a major fundraiser for the TSO. This year is no different. Competitors have held special events to raise money and spread the TSO gospel.
“This has been a very competitive year for our celebrity conductors. We were quite adept at picking four that would challenge each other,” Clark said. The competition typically raises more than $30,000 and funds student concerts, guest artists and youth symphony activities.
“Christmas at the Perot” is a great concert to welcome new TSO-goers and make new connections, they say.
“The Christmas concert is a great one to bring them in. It’s got a mix of pops and great classics,” Bougie said.
For a conductor, it’s a challenging concert to produce because of the many pieces and musical variety. “You’ve got to keep it going quickly, change mood, change emotion, change style,” Bougie said. “When it’s done right, it’s very effective and it’s fun to do.”
He points to the strong tradition of Christmas music, which includes jazz band-type arrangements that are fun to play. This show is also interactive, and concertgoers should expect Bougie to discuss the music they perform. In all, expect to see about 200 musicians, singers and performers on stage.
(Tickets: $48, $39 and $30 for adults; $14 for kids 6 to 12 years old, $9 for kids up to 5 years old. More info and tickets: 903-7924992 or TexarkanaSymphony.org.)