The New York Pops Presents Make The Season Bright With Liz Callaway & Ann Hampton Callaway and Will & Anthony Nunziata

On December 16 and 17, 2016 at 8:00PM, The New York Pops, led by Music Director Steven Reineke, will present an evening full of holiday cheer at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. The orchestra will be joined by four guest artists, sisters Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway and brothers Anthony and Will Nunziata, for a holiday affair filled with family fun. Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA will help ring in the holiday season.

"Our December concerts really are my favorite holiday tradition, and I believe that they're a cherished holiday tradition for the 5,000 New Yorkers who attend each winter!," said Music Director Steven Reineke. "For years, I've been dreaming of getting my good friends the Callaway sisters and the Nunziata twins on stage with The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. It's really going to be a fun family affair, and the chemistry among these performers will be absolutely electric. I want it to feel like everyone in the hall is sitting around the fireplace, sipping hot chocolate, and singing our favorite songs. That's what a New York Pops holiday concert should really be like - coming home to your family!"

The orchestra's 34th season continues on Friday, March 10, 2017, 8:00PM with Life is a Cabaret: The Songs of Kander and Ebb, in celebration of John Kander's 90th birthday. The New York Pops brings to life his five decade partnership with Fred Ebb with songs from their hit Broadway shows including Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Scottsboro Boys, and Chicago.

ABOUT Ann Hampton Callaway

One of the leading champions of the great American Songbook, Ann has made her mark as a singer, pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger, actress, educator, TV host, and producer. She won the Theatre World Award and received a Tony nomination for her starring role in the Broadway musical Swing! Ann made her Hollywood screen debut in Robert DeNiro's The Good Shepherd and was featured in the soundtrack of Queen Latifah's Last Holiday. She has written over 250 songs, including platinum award-winning hits for Barbra Streisand and the theme for the hit TV series The Nanny. She performs the critically acclaimed acts "Sibling Revelry" and "Boom!" with Broadway star and sister Liz Callaway. Recently, Ann has taken the symphony world by storm with her tribute to her legendary mentor in "The Streisand Songbook", which she premiered with The Boston Pops and has performed with over 70 symphonies. Her 2014 CD, From Sassy to Divine: The Sarah Vaughan Project, was released to rave reviews and went a long way in establishing Ann as one of the premier jazz voices in the world. Mixed by Grammy Award winning engineer Todd Whitelock, it is Callaway's first live solo CD, recorded at the height of her vocal and interpretive powers. Down Beat gave her latest CD The Hope Of Christmas four stars and said: "A glorious gift of new music comes from Ann Hampton Callaway, a Tony-nominated Broadway and cabaret singer-songwriter with a genuine feel for jazz. Using impeccable phrasing, she infuses the music of The Hope Of Christmas with a refined jollity." For more information, see www.annhamptoncallaway.com.

ABOUT Liz Callaway

Tony nominee and Emmy winner Liz Callaway made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. She has gone on to star in Baby, Miss Saigon, The Look of Love, The Three Musketeers, and for 5 years appeared as Grizabella in Cats. Off-Broadway appearances include The Spitfire Grill (Drama Desk nomination), No Way to Treat a Lady, Marry Me a Little, and Brownstone. Liz sang the Academy Award-nominated song "Journey to the Past" in the animated feature Anastasia. Other film work includes Jasmine in the two Aladdin sequels, The Swan Princess, and The Rewrite with Hugh Grant. She received an Emmy Award for hosting Ready to Go, a daily, live children's program on CBS in Boston. Other TV credits include In Performance at the White House, Inside The Actors Studio: Stephen Sondheim, The David Letterman Show, and Senior Trip (CBS Movie of the Week). Her extensive concert and symphony career has included appearances in London, Paris, Iceland, Vietnam, Australia, China, and nearly every major city in the U.S. She performs regularly with her sister Ann Hampton Callaway, as well as composer Stephen Schwartz, and has had the great pleasure of singing with Jimmy Webb, Paul Williams and the legendary Johnny Mathis. Liz has six solo recordings: The Essential Liz Callaway, Passage of Time, The Beat Goes On, The Story Goes On: Liz Callaway On and Off- Broadway, Anywhere I Wander: Liz Callaway Sings Frank Loesser, and her Christmas album Merry and Bright. www.lizcallaway.com

ABOUT WILL AND Anthony Nunziata

Entertainers, recording artists, funny-men and advocates of arts in education, Will & Anthony Nunziata are the Brooklyn-born, classically trained singing and comedy brother duo hailed by The Huffington Post as "a nearly impossible pairing of talent, stage presence and charisma." The brothers have brought their distinct take on classic and contemporary songs to performing arts centers and theaters, as well as symphony concerts with orchestras such as the Detroit Symphony, Cleveland Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Cape Cod Symphony, Toledo Symphony, and Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. Featured on Good Morning America and The Rachael Ray Show, Will & Anthony are extremely proud to have created their Arts in Education Outreach Program "Arts Matter!" in which they visit schools and conduct master classes with students, providing education and inspiration in supporting the arts as a significant component of young people's lives. Separately, Will is an acclaimed stage director and is the concert director for many of Broadway's leading ladies, including Tony Award Winner LiLlias White. Anthony is an emerging songwriter whose songs are featured on the brothers' Christmas EP, The Gift Is You, which is available for purchase. Get social with Will & Anthony on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @willandanthony. For more information, visit www.WillandAnthony.com.

ABOUT THE NEW YORK POPS

The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States, and the only professional symphonic orchestra in New York City specializing in popular music. Under the leadership of dynamic Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, The New York Pops continues to re-imagine orchestral pops music. The orchestra performs an annual subscription series and birthday gala at Carnegie Hall, as well as a summer concert series at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, NY. The New York Pops is dedicated to lifelong learning, and collaborates with public schools, community organizations, children's hospitals, and senior centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City. PopsEd allows thousands of New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds to participate in fully customizable music programs that blend traditional education with pure fun. Visit www.newyorkpops.org for more information. Follow The New York Pops on Facebook (facebook.com/newyorkpops), Instagram (@thenewyorkpops), and Twitter (@newyorkpops).

Steven Reineke is the Music Director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Principal Pops Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Principal Pops Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Principal Pops Conductor Designate for the Houston Symphony, beginning in the 2017-2018 season. Mr. Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra and has been on the podium with the Boston Pops, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia. His extensive North American conducting appearances include San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, Edmonton and Pittsburgh. As the creator of more than one hundred orchestral arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Mr. Reineke's work has been performed worldwide, and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings on the Telarc label. His symphonic works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America. His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands around the world. A native of Ohio, Mr. Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City with his husband, Eric Gabbard.

ABOUT ESSENTIAL VOICES USA

Judith Clurman, Music Director and Conductor

Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is one of New York's preeminent choral ensembles; it performs at many of the city's iconic venues and events, and records and premieres works by America's finest composers and lyricists. Regularly on stage with The New York Pops on its Carnegie Hall subscription series, televised on NBC's broadcast of the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular in 2014, and the Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting in 2011 and 2012, the ensemble comprises a talented roster of seasoned professionals and auditioned volunteers, dynamically fitted to the unique needs of each project. Among other national highlights, EVUSA participated in the 2013 Presidential Inaugural activities and held a month-long residency at National Public Radio. The impressive cohort of musicians that have worked with EVUSA run the gamut from the young opera sensation Jamie Barton to Broadway star Idina Menzel to musical theater luminaries Stephen Schwartz and Sheldon Harnick to composers Milton Babbitt and Jennifer Higdon. EVUSA currently produces The Composer Speaks at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, a series of musical performances complemented by panel discussions with composers and lyricists. EVUSA Youth Workshop provides select high school students the opportunity to participate with the main ensemble in the heart of New York City's music scene. It has recorded works by Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Shore. EVUSA has recorded several CDs for Sono Luminus. Their latest release, Season of Light: Songs of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah and New Year's will be released in November 2016.

TICKETS

Single tickets are priced from $40 to $130. Subscriptions to the 2016-2017 Carnegie Hall series are also available, from $180 to $630. Purchases can be made at the Carnegie Hall Box Office (57th Street and Seventh Avenue) or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. Visit www.carnegiehall.org for more information.

Photo credit: Steven Reineke by Michael Tammaro; Callaways by Bill Westmoreland; Nunziatas by Anthony Grassetti