November 19, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Portland’s newest holiday tradition for family entertainment, the Oregon Symphony’s Broadway-style Yuletide Celebration, returns complete with tap-dancing Santas Dec. 17 through 20 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Dec. 21 at Smith Auditorium in Salem. Media support for these concerts is provided by Northwest NewsChannel 8, K103fm and Oregon Business Magazine.
Now in its fourth season, this Symphony holiday tradition continues to feature a lineup of new dazzling productions, an outstanding cast of professional actors, singers and dancers, as well as local talent, lavish costumes and eye-catching sets. This year’s concerts are hosted by Broadway’s Doug LaBrecque, who starred in “Phantom of the Opera” and in national touring productions of “Les Miserables.” Throughout the evening LaBrecque, backed by the orchestra and chorus, will sing a number of holiday favorites, including “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” “Hanukah O Hanukah” and “Let It Snow.”
This year’s show also features entertaining and humorous new numbers, including: “Be A Santa,” in which Santa transforms his elves into Santa clones, using the wacky “Santa-tizer” machine; “Mister Santa,” a clever reworking of the 1950s girl group hit “Mister Sandman” featuring a trio of women in 50s-style crinolines singing in close harmony; and the show-stopping production number “Jingle Bells,” which presents every conceivable version of this favorite holiday tune, from be-bop to salsa, complete with conga lines, dancing and a theatrical light show. Concert-goers who attended last year’s Yuletide Celebration will also enjoy the return of the tap-dancing Santas in “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” performed by local dance group The Jefferson Dancers, directed by DeDe Priest. The Symphony, led by guest conductor Charles Prince, will perform arrangements created specifically for Yuletide Celebration, including holiday favorites “Joy to the World,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Sleigh Ride” and “Carol of the Bells.”
In addition to the local dance talent, a chorus of eight singers directed by Portland Opera’s chorusmaster Carol Lucas will lend their voices to the Yuletide cast as they back up LaBrecque singing “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and “O Holy Night.”
The Westminster Presbyterian Church Concert Bell Choir, directed by Anne Stevenson, will be ringing in seasonal favorites in the Prelude programs that are held in the lobby of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall prior to the Saturday, Sunday and Monday concerts. Their program includes arrangements of “Silent Night,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and other Christmas favorites.
In what has become an annual holiday tradition, the Symphony and Northwest NewsChannel 8 are once again joining forces to support KGW’s annual holiday toy drive; on-air KGW television personalities are scheduled to make appearances at each concert. Donations of new, unwrapped toys for the Northwest NewsChannel 8 Toy Drive and canned food for the Oregon Food Bank are accepted at all Oregon Symphony Holiday concerts.
The first Yuletide Celebration was created for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1986 when discussions with local dance and theater companies led to the idea of creating a show that would combine elements of each art form in a manner that showcases the orchestra. Now in its 19th year in Indianapolis, Yuletide Celebration is one of the orchestra industry’s major success stories.
Performances are scheduled for Friday, Dec. 17 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 18 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 19 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Monday, Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. An additional performance is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. in Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Tickets range in price from $29 to $72 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
Associate Conductor of the New York Pops since 1996, Charles Prince represents a new generation of acclaimed American conductors.
Prince studied with Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier and Kurt Sanderling through the Tanglewood Conducting Seminar in 1988 and 1989, after earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in music history and theory from Oberlin College. While a student at Oberlin, Prince began his conducting training with Robert Page of The Cleveland Orchestra. He has also worked extensively with one of Europe’s most eminent conductors, Jorma Panula, in Helsinki.
Charles Prince has collaborated with many of the next generation of composers and showcased the music of Jason Robert Brown, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel and Michael John LaChiusa in a 2000 New York Pops concert. He conducted Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Only Heaven” off Broadway in 2001 and the world premiere of Gordon’s “The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Liberation Through Hearing” in Houston and Philadelphia in 1996. That same year, Prince also led the world premier of Richard Peaslee’s “The Snow Queen,” a New York State Theatre Institute production based on the Hans Christian Anderson tale.
In addition to conducting The New York Pops, Prince has been a frequent guest conductor with the WDR Orchestra (Cologne-Essen, Germany), the Bavarian Radio Orchestra (Munich, Germany), the Munich Symphony Orchestra and the Sofia (Bulgaria) Philharmonic Orchestra. He was music director of the Tony Award-winning production of James Joyce’s “The Dead” on Broadway and in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. As a conductor of Stephen Sondheim’s music, Prince led the Brooklyn Philharmonic in a 1999 gala concert weekend at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the London Philharmonic’s “Sondheim Tonight” tribute at the Barbican, which was later issued as a recording. In 1995, he led the Munich Radio Orchestra in its performance and recording of a gala concert for Hal Prince. Previously, he served as the Second Kapellmeister of Germany’s Gorlitz Opera House. Other guest conducting appearances have been with the Verbier Festival, Utah Opera Festival, Circle Repertory Company, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and Musiktheater der Stadt Coburg.
A pervasive theme in Charles Prince’s life, “It is all music,” was present from his earliest childhood memories in a creative household and attending Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts at Philharmonic Hall at the ages of four and five, to his present-day association with Skitch Henderson and The New York Pops.
Doug LaBrecque thrilled theatre audiences as The Phantom and Raoul in the Harold Prince production of “The Phantom of the Opera.” In addition, Mr. LaBrecque has starred on Broadway as Ravenal in the Hal Prince revival of “Showboat,” a role he also performed in Canada and Chicago. He was featured in Oscar Hammerstein’s 100 th Birthday Celebration on Broadway at The Gershwin Theatre and toured nationally with “Les Miserables.” Regionally, Mr. LaBrecque performed leading roles in “Candide,” “A Chorus Line” and “Man of LaMancha,” among many others. A graduate of University of Michigan, he was also featured in the world premiere of “A Wonderful Life,” and starred in the premiere revival of Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s “Love Life.” An active concert performer, he has been a soloist with some of the world’s finest symphony orchestras including The National (with Marvin Hamlisch), Chicago, and San Francisco Symphonies as well as the Cleveland Orchestra, among many others. International engagements have included The Israel Philharmonic, The Korean National Symphony, The Shanghai Radio Orchestra in China, The Brazilian Symphony and the Jerusalem Symphony. Upcoming engagements include the orchestras of Houston, San Diego, Utah, Grant Park, Baltimore, New Jersey as well as Seoul, Korea. Mr. LaBrecque recently traveled to Italy as a guest soloist in an all-Bernstein concert. For scheduling or CD information, log onto www.DouLaBrecque.com.
Sharon Wheatley is happy to be a part of this wonderful holiday celebration. Sharon resides in New York City with her husband and 6-year-old daughter Charlotte. She had the distinction of performing Jennyanydots in the final company of the record breaking Broadway run of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” as it ended 18 years at The Winter Garden Theater. Other Broadway includes “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Les Miserables.” Ms. Wheatley has also toured extensively nationally and internationally and performed regionally. Her favorite roles include Vickie Nichols in “The Full Monty,” Rosabella in “The Most Happy Fella” and The Baker’s Wife in “Into The Woods.” A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Ms. Wheatley attended The Cincinnati-College Conservatory. Also a playwright, her first play, “The Park Bench,” was produced last spring at New York’s Blue Heron Theater. Sharon is a member of the National Board of Councilors of Actor’s Equity Association.
Kristen Plumley is making her Oregon Symphony debut with these holiday concerts. She spent the 2003 holiday season with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in their production of “A Yuletide Celebration” and returned to Indiana for their summer Science Fiction concerts. Career highlights include New York City Opera (Barbarina in “Le nozze di Figaro”), Virginia Opera (Zerlina in “Don Giovanni”), Opera Français de New York (Sultan of Egypt in Gluck’s “Les Pelerins De La Mecque”), Opera Festival of New Jersey (Nanetta in “Falstaff”), Nevada Opera (Josephine in “H.M.S. Pinafore”), Chautauqua Opera (Sophie in “Werther”) and Boheme Opera, New Jersey (Adele in “Die Fledermaus”). Other performances include Norina (“Don Pasquale”) for Monadnock Music Festival, Opera Memphis and Virginia Opera and Despina (“Così fan tutte”), Barbarina (“Le nozze di Figaro”), Maria (“West Side Story”), Carrie (“Carousel”) and Yum-Yum (“The Mikado”) in Edinburgh, Scotland. This fall Kristen made her Carnegie Hall debut as soprano soloist in Mozart’s “Coronation Mass” and Haydn’s “Mass in Time of War.”
