The Aiken Symphony Orchestra is celebrating the Christmas season with two holiday concerts.
The orchestra, under the leadership of Maestro Donald Portnoy, will first present its annual “Home for the Holidays” Christmas Pops concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, on the main stage of the Etherredge Center on the campus of USC Aiken, 471 University Parkway.
A holiday staple, this year’s performance will open with an orchestral overture of Christmas favorites and include works by Andy Williams (“The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”), Irving Berlin (“White Christmas”) and Leroy Anderson (“A Christmas Festival”), along with pop favorites including “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” “Grown-Up Christmas List,” and “Let It Go” from Disney’s “Frozen.”
Not to be forgotten, selections from legendary Russian composer P.I. Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” will be performed. Members of the Aiken Civic Ballet, South Carolina’s longest continuously operating dance company, will perform alongside the Aiken Symphony Orchestra as a wonderful treat for symphony goers.
As a special offering to audiences at this year’s Christmas Pops concert, two television and Broadway stars, Rachel Potter and Patrick Thomas, will be featured performing solo and duets accompanied by the orchestra.
Potter was cast on Broadway as Ariel in “Voyage of the Little Mermaid,” as Belle in “Beauty and the Beast,” Nemo in “Finding Nemo,” and as Wednesday Addams in the musical version of “The Addams Family.”
Thomas has had roles in television (“3rd Rock from the Sun” and “Murder, She Wrote”) and movies (“Addams Family Reunion,” “American Hero” and “The Boy Who Saved Christmas”), among others. This will be the Aiken Symphony Orchestra Christmas Pops debut for Potter and Thomas.
In a continuation of the season’s festivities, the Aiken Symphony Chamber Orchestra, in collaboration with the Aiken Symphony Festival Chorus, will present G.F. Handel’s Messiah. Composed in the span of 24 days for an April 1742 premiere, Handel’s oratorio presents Old Testament prophecy and New Testament hope to meet the spirit of the Christmas season.
Featured soloists returning with the orchestra will be Diana Amos (soprano), Rachel Calloway (mezzo-soprano), Dominic Armstrong (tenor) and Jacob Will (baritone). The Aiken Symphony Chamber Orchestra’s performance of Messiah will take place at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 14, at St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church, 138 Fairfield St. S.E.
Tickets to the Pops concert are $55, $45 and $40. Tickets to Messiah are $40.
Tickets for both concerts are available for purchase online at www.aikensymphonyorchestra.com, by calling 803-220-7251 or email at admin@aikensymphonyorchestra.com.
