19th-annual "Christmas in Italy®" starring Cristina Fontanelli at Bruno Walter Auditorium for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center

CRISTINA FONTANELLI (www.cristinafontanelli.com ) award-winning singer/actor and PBS/-TV host for Andrea Bocelli, along with musicians, a youth dance troupe and choir will perform Italy’s best-loved songs, arias, Neapolitan and Christmas classics in Cristina Fontanelli’s 19th Annual “Christmas in Italy®” charitable concert at the Bruno Walter Auditorium for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, NYC on Saturday, December 17 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.  Tickets: $79 (VIP), $68 (General), $62.50 (Seniors) and $35 (Children under 12) are available thru Purplepass Tickets: (800) 316-8559 or on-line: www.purplepass.com/ItalianChristmasMatinee  and www.purplepass.com/ItalianChristmasEvening  Call the office of The Cristina Fontanelli Foundation Inc. (212) 967-1926 for more information/group tickets.

 QUOTE: Ms. Fontanelli says, “I began this annual Holiday tradition 19 years ago to preserve Italy’s great classic and popular songs and the values they represent, for younger generations. We have been blessed to have continued, even during the terrible Covid Pandemic, and that we are considered a beloved NYC Holiday tradition along with the tree in Rockefeller Center and the Rockettes.” [HEADLINE]: “Cristina Fontanelli, Preserving Values Through Opera,” The Epoch Times, January 2014.

Program includes Italian songs: Torna a Surriento, Mamma and Ave Maria, plus Christmas classics such as White Christmas; operatic selections from La Boheme and La Traviata; and guitar and mandolin solos such as the Godfather Theme. Here is Ms. Fontanelli’s CBS-TV interview and performance of the famous Neapolitan song "O Sole Mio".

Musicians include: Matthew Hayden, accompanist; Joyce Balint, mandolin (NY Philharmonic); Bill Schimmel, accordion (Grammy nomination) and David Galvez, guitar. Matthew Cerillo, young guest tenor; the Xaverian High School Choir (Brooklyn) and the youth of the Dream Studio of the Performing Arts (Staten Island) will dance to “Dominick, the Italian Christmas Donkey.”

This concert was conceived by Cristina Fontanelli and is produced by the 501 c-3 The Cristina Fontanelli Foundation, Inc. The mission statement includes creating family-friendly musical productions giving young people performance opportunities and growing the awareness of the scientifically proven societal benefits of classical music and the arts. Tax-deductible donations can be made thru: www.thecristinafontanellifoundation.org

About Cristina Fontanelli: (“Vocal Genius” – The New York Sun) Brooklyn-born Cristina Fontanelli has performed throughout the United States and internationally singing title roles with the Palm Beach Opera, The Boston Pops and the St. Louis Symphony and has received the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts from the Order Sons of Italy in America (previous recipient Luciano Pavarotti). She has appeared on PBS-TV and was honored by the Italian Government as an artist of Pugliese descent. She has performed for the Clinton White House and for the George W. Bush Presidential Inauguration.  She appears annually at 54 Below and for Opera & Broadway of the Hamptons.  She has won Best Actress in two International Film Festivals and sings in 9 languages.