Pittsburgh Symphony Presents HIGHMARK HOLIDAY POPS, Today

Celebrate the magic of the holiday season with the music of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's annual HighMark Holiday Pops December 9 through 11 and December 17 and 18 at Heinz Hall.

Delight in Pittsburgh's favorite holiday musical tradition as Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong leads that orchestra in seasonal favorites such as "All I Want For Christmas Is You," "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker, "Hallelujah Chorus" from Messiah, Marvin Hamlisch's "Chanukah Lights" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Even more seasonal tunes and carols - and a few surprises - will make this a night for the whole family to enjoy!

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra welcomes talented guest artists to the celebration, including Broadway actress Capathia Jenkins, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the Three Rivers Ringers, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School and the return of Santa Claus!

Audiences also can enjoy Heinz Hall decorated beautifully for the holidays with a 25-foot Christmas tree and a large menorah, and, new for this year, the NRG Gingerbread House, which will be in the Heinz Hall Garden through December 24. The Gingerbread House brings back another Pittsburgh tradition - Santaland at Kaufmanns and Macy's - as the new home of the original downtown Santaland Co., including the vintage Santa's chair, reindeer, wreaths and red carpet!

The family holiday spectacular begins Friday, December 9 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, December 10 at 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, December 11 at 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, December 17 and 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, December 18 at 2:30 p.m. Doors open one hour before concert start times.

All remaining tickets to HighMark Holiday Pops are $20, courtesy of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield & The Jack Buncher Foundation. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or visiting pittsburghsymphony.org/holidaypops.

The Pittsburgh Symphony would like to recognize and thank Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield for its 2016 title sponsorship of HighMark Holiday Pops. Fairmont Pittsburgh is the official hotel of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

About the Artists

American conductor FRANCESCO LECCE-CHONG has worked with orchestras around the world including engagements with the National Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He currently holds the positions of assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. Previously, Lecce-Chong served as associate conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Grand Teton Music Festival.

Lecce-Chong has earned a growing reputation and critical acclaim for dynamic, forceful performances, garnering national distinction, including the Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award and The Presser Foundation Music Award. He has also been featured in international masterclasses with Bernard Haitink, David Zinman, David Robertson and Christopher Seaman.

As a trained pianist and composer, Lecce-Chong embraces innovative programming, champions the work of new composers and supports arts education. While working with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) from 2011 to 2015, he curated and presented the works of both active and lesser-known composers, including two works commissioned by the orchestra, as well as two U.S. premieres. He also helped create the first MSO Composer Institute, providing performance opportunities for young American composers. Lecce-Chong has complemented his programming with a strong commitment to arts education for all ages. In Milwaukee, he provided artistic leadership for the MSO's nationally lauded Arts in Community Education program - one of the largest arts integration programs in the country - and he continues to be a frequent guest speaker for arts organizations around the country.

Lecce-Chong is a native of Boulder, Colorado, where he began conducting at the age of 16. He is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree with honors in piano and orchestral conducting. Lecce-Chong also holds a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied as a Martin and Sarah Taylor Fellow with Otto-Werner Mueller.

The Brooklyn-born and raised actress, Capathia Jenkins, most recently starred as Medda in the hit Disney production of "Newsies" on Broadway. She made her Broadway debut in "The Civil War," where she created the role of Harriet Jackson. She then starred in the Off-Broadway 2000 revival of "Godspell," where she wowed audiences with her stirring rendition of "Turn Back, O Man," which can still be heard on the original cast recording. She returned to Broadway in "The Look of Love" and was critically acclaimed for her performances of the Bacharach/David hits. Jenkins then created the roles of The Washing Machine in "Caroline or Change" and Frieda May in "Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me" where she sang "Stop the Show" and brought the house down every night. In 2007, she went back to off-Broadway and starred in "(mis) Understanding Mammy - The Hattie McDaniel Story" for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Most recently she was seen in "Nora Ephron's Love, Loss and What I Wore."

An active concert artist, Jenkins has appeared with numerous orchestras around the world including the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony (with Marvin Hamlisch), National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Memphis Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, Toledo Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic among many others. She will return this summer as a soloist with the Festival Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic for the third time.

Jenkins had the great honor of performing in the Broadway Ambassadors to Cuba concert as part of the Festival De Teatro De La Habana. Jenkins was the guest soloist with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops and has several return engagements with the Cincinnati Pops. She returned to Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops in November 2015 and recently sang in a tribute to Marvin Hamlisch at the Library of Congress. She has appeared several times at Carnegie Hall as a soloist with the New York Pops.

Her television credits include "30 Rock," "The Practice," "Law & Order: SVU," "The Sopranos" and "Law & Order." She can be seen in the 2012 film "Musical Chairs" directed by Susan Seidelman. In December, Jenkins was seen in "The Wiz" in a live performance on NBC. She can be heard on the following film soundtracks: "Nine," "Chicago" and "Legally Blonde 2."

Hailed as one of the finest choruses in the country, the MENDELSSOHN CHOIR OF PITTSBURGH (MCP) is proud of its long artistic partnership with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Primarily a volunteer chorus, the Mendelssohn Choir is composed of more than 100+ singers whose passion and commitment enables them to perform alongside the world's greatest musicians. In addition to its performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Mendelssohn Choir produces its own community concerts and provides professional choral instruction to talented young people through the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.

MCP is committed to offering a mix of traditional and innovative choral performances to maintain the vitality and relevance of the choral art. Under its new music director, Matthew Mehaffey - MCP's seventh music director in its 109-year history, MCP looks forward to bringing Pittsburgh audiences more concert experiences such as "The Music of Downton Abbey" (October 2016) and the Pittsburgh premiere of "Annelies," a choral work based on the "Diary of Anne Frank" (February 2017). Last summer, MCP partnered with composer/conductor Steven Hackman to perform "Defying Gravity," a concert of Hackman's arrangements and choral mash-ups at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. The concert was Hackman's premiere performance at the Arts Festival and was MCP's first appearance on the Festival's mainstage after a 40-year hiatus. MCP and Hackman later performed the "Defying Gravity" concert at Oglebay, West Virginia.

As the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's "chorus of choice," the Mendelssohn Choir has performed with some of the world's foremost conductors including Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Michael Tilson Thomas, Claudio Abbado, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, Charles Dutoit, André Previn, Sir Neville Marriner, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Helmuth Rilling, Ingo Metzmacher, Richard Hickox, Zdenek Mácal and Manfred Honeck. Performances of the Choir with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra are heard locally over WQED-FM (89.3) and distributed nationally by PRI.

Committed to fostering the choral art form, the Mendelssohn Choir has numerous recordings, commissions and premieres to its credit, including works by Ned Rorem, Nancy Galbraith and Derek Bermel. The Choir's most recent recording released in fall 2011 is Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Children's Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh with Manfred Honeck conducting.

THREE RIVERS RINGERS (TRR) is Pittsburgh's premier handbell ensemble, founded in 2010 by five handbell musicians with the goal of achieving musical excellence, performing challenging repertoire and pushing the boundaries of the handbell art form. Composed of 16 accomplished handbell musicians, Three Rivers Ringers is a year-round community-based ensemble and holds biannual auditions.

Among its notable performances, Three Rivers Ringers performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2015 on all seven of the HighMark Holiday Pops concerts. Three Rivers Ringers also performed with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 2012, gave a concert for the regional convention of the American Guild of Organists in 2015, and gave a solo concert at the 2016 National Seminar of the Handbell Musicians of America, the national guild for handbell musicians and directors.

Under the direction of Nancy R. Lutz, Three Rivers Ringers has become a growing fixture in the arts scene in Western Pennsylvania, giving 10 to 15 performances each year in winter and spring concert series throughout the region in addition to private bookings. The ensemble is recognized not only for holiday music during the winter, but for a variety of other programming, with past concert series featuring American composers, the music of dance, classical favorites, sacred music and music from the stage and screen. Three Rivers Ringers is highly honored to be invited back as a guest artist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for the HighMark Holiday Pops in December 2016.

As part of its educational mission, Three Rivers Ringers organizes and runs the Western Pennsylvania Handbell Festival (WPA), an annual educational event for beginning and intermediate level handbell ensembles with massed ringing, classes, and workshops with nationally recognized clinicians. Nancy Lutz is also a founding director of the WPA Handbell Festival, now in its 17th year.

In addition to her work directing Three Rivers Ringers, Lutz served on the Board of Directors of the Handbell Musicians of America from 1999 to 2012. After retiring as appointed secretary, Lutz was presented with the first President's Award for her years of service.

The ensemble released its first commercial recording, Ringing in the Season, in December 2014, completely selling out the first print run. In July 2015 Three Rivers Ringers was commissioned to record its second CD, Jubilate, featuring the handbell compositions of Stanley Leonard, retired principal timpanist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, Three Rivers Ringers recorded two bonus tracks for a new edition of Ringing in the Season, releasing in December 2016.

Three Rivers Ringers performs with a 6.5-octave set of Schulmerich handbells, a 5-octave set of Schulmerich handchimes, a 1-octave set of Malmark bass chimes, and a 2-octave set of Schulmerich Silver Melody Bells.

As the official training institution of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, PITTSBURGH BALLET THEATRE SCHOOL is recognized as one of the nation's finest schools for dance education and training. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr and School Co-Directors Marjorie Grundvig and DenniS Marshall, PBT School offers classical ballet training and a diverse dance curriculum to more than 1,000 students of all ages, levels and degrees of interest taught by faculty and guest teachers of international acclaim. Strengthened by daily exposure to PBT's professional company of dancers, PBT School students experience training that extends from the studio to the main stage.

PBT School provides classical ballet training through four divisions: Children's, Student, Pre-Professional and Community. The Children's Division introduces very young children to dance through pre-ballet and ballet foundations classes. As students move into the Student Division, six progressive levels strengthen classical ballet technique. Many students in this division have the opportunity to audition for and perform in Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's annual presentation of The Nutcracker and other repertoire productions.

The Pre-Professional Division (High School & Graduate) is the keystone of the School, training the next generation of professional dancers, including more than 50 percent of PBT's current company roster. Students hail from places across the Americas, Canada, Europe and Asia. Admission to this program is by audition and invitation only.

Community Division classes and workshops focus on fostering healthy lifestyles through dance and regular physical activity. Various ballet classes are offered for several levels, all designed to encourage coordination, strength, flexibility and muscle tone. The Community Division also offers other dance and fitness classes such as contemporary, Pilates mat, conditioning for dancers, yoga and dance-fitness fusion classes. PBT's Pilates Program combines classical Pilates training with professional dance experience resulting in a unique cross-training method preferred by many PBT company dancers and is open to the public.

Each year, PBT School embarks on an audition tour, traveling across the United States auditioning students for its summer programs. Approximately 275 students attend the summer programs. From this group, select students are invited to attend the school-year pre-professional program each year. The School's modern and air-conditioned facility, including the new Byham Center for Dance, is conveniently located in Pittsburgh's famed Strip District, just 1.5 miles from the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. It features seven spacious studios with sprung Harlequin floors.

An award-winning actor and singer, Christopher Sanders has performed in venues around the world. Throughout this career, he has had the pleasure of performing with George Hearn, Roddy McDowell, Carol Lawrence, John Raitt, Debbie Boone and Rosemary Clooney. Most recently, he received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd. Additional theatrical credits include Javert ("Les Miserables"), Emile ("South Pacific"), Sky Masterson ("Guys and Dolls"), Fred/Petruchio ("Kiss Me Kate"), Jekyll/Hyde ("Jekyll and Hyde"), Beast ("Disney's Beauty and the Beast"), Don Quixote ("Man of La Mancha"), Chauvelin ("The Scarlet Pimpernel"), Juan Peron ("Evita"), Phantom ("Phantom of the Opera"), Adam ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers") and Cinderella's Prince/Wolf ("Into the Woods"). His concert work includes engagements with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Bangor Symphony, Pasadena Pops and the Music of Andrew Lloyd weber at the National Theatre and Concert Hall Taiwan. Sanders tours the country as the baritone for the legendary 1940s singing group The Pied Pipers. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame along with The Bee Gees and The Lettermen. Sanders has been a proud member of AEA for 20 years. Sander's solo CD, "Curtain Call," is available on iTunes and CDBaby.com.

The PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, known for its artistic excellence for more than 120 years, is credited with a rich history of the world's finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), André Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works, and gave the first performance of Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah" in 1944 and John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. Its "Pittsburgh Live!" series with Reference Recordings has resulted in back-to-back Grammy Award nominations in 2015 and 2016. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony broadcast on the airwaves coast-to-coast and in the late 1970s it made the ground breaking PBS series "Previn and the Pittsburgh." The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900 - including international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America-the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world's greatest orchestras.

HEINZ HALL FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Heinz Hall hosts many events that do not feature its world-renowned Orchestra including Broadway shows, popular touring artists, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org.

(Photo Credit: Wade Massie)