A Christmas Carol in Concert to Perform at the Meyerhoff for Two Nights Only

The BSO presents A Christmas Carol in Concert, a new twist on Dickens' classic tale performed as a concert with a full symphony orchestra on Friday, December 16th at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, December 17th at 7:30 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Featuring the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Amy Duran, this time-honored tale of Mr. Scrooge comes to life with a choir, a rock/pop rhythm section, a narrator and soloists. Please see below for complete event details.

In a new score written by the co-writer of Too Hot to Handel, Bob Christianson, and lyricist Alisa Hauser, A Christmas Carol in Concert incorporates musical styles that range from classical and gospel to blues and Broadway. Follow Mr. Scrooge's journey as he is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve in this special Christmas concert intended for audience members of all ages.

Bob Christianson, composer & arranger
Bob Christianson is a composer, arranger, keyboard player and conductor. He is honored to have the Baltimore Symphony premier his new piece, A Christmas Carol - The Concert. This is the second of his orchestral works that has been performed by the BSO, the first being Too Hot To Handel which he co-arranged with Gary Anderson from an original concept by Marin Alsop.

His new musical, Take Me America (book & lyrics by Bill Nable) has just opened for a two month run at the prestigious Village Theatre in Seattle, which was the original home of the hit Broadway shows Next To Normal and Million Dollar Quartet.

Bob was the most called upon composer for the HBO series Sex And The City. He was nominated for an Emmy for his music for ABC Sports, and has scored many series for the Discovery family of networks, including Secrets Of The National Parks and The Blue Angels-A Year In The Life. His television credits also include this season's Mysteries Of The Museum (Travel Channel) and the "NCAA Basketball Theme" for CBS. He has also scored Life Is Wild (for the CW), The Equalizer (CBS), Gimme A Break (NBC) and The Winter Olympics (CBS). Bob has written over 25 award winning sports themes for CBS, ESPN & ABC.

Mr. Christianson received his bachelor's degree from SUNY at Potsdam (Crane School Of Music), and has done graduate work in composition at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. After college, he started his career in New York as musical director/conductor for such Broadway Shows as Godspell, Gilda Radner-Live From New York and The Magic Show.

As a successful studio synthesist, he has recorded with such producers as the late, great Arif Mardin, and has recorded with such artists as Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Jan Hammer, Judy Collins, DiAnna Ross & Rupert Holmes.

His orchestra works have been performed by The Baltimore Symphony, The Colorado Symphony, The Concordia Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, and others.

You can visit Bob on the web at www.bobchristianson.com, or the website for A Christmas Carol-The Concert at www.achristmascaroltheconcert.com.

Alisa Hauser, lyricist & book adaptation
Alisa Hauser is an alumnus of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop where she met many of her fantastic collaborators including the amazing Bob Christianson. For the theatre she has written the short musical The Weather Man with composer Philip Palmer, which had its world premiere at the New Works Festival at Clear Space Productions in Delaware. She also wrote an original song (music and lyrics) for the Weston Playhouse production of Stuart Little. For television she has written lyrics, with composer Stephen Sislen, for the Disney Channel's Johnny And The Sprites. Her cabaret songs have been performed at various venues around New York City including Ars Nova, Joe's Pub and the Shag Carpet Festival. Alisa is a graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with a degree in musical theatre and worked for many years as an actress where she appeared on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Grease, and Disney's Beauty and The Beast.

Amy Duran, conductor
Amy Duran is a graduate of Northwestern University. She has served as musical assistant for the Glimmerglass Opera, the Brevard Music Festival, The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, and The New York Grand Opera. This lead to a two year stay with the Zurich Opera, where she made her conducting debut with the Opera Studio production of The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten. This was followed by a three year engagement with the Osnabrueck Stadttheatre, in Onsnabrueck,Germany where she also served as accompanist to many vocal recitals around Germany, France and Switzerland.

Ms. Duran then became the associate conductor to the German premiere of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Cameron Mackintosh's Miss Saigon in Stuttgart. Upon returning to New York, Ms. Duran joined the Broadway conducting team of Disney's Beauty and the Beast to the show's final bow in 2007. She is currently on the accompanying and conducting staff at Jersey City University's Opera and Music Theatre Departments. She was Music Director for NJCU's production of "Into the Woods", and the recent production of Cy Coleman's City of Angels. She also serves as accompanist for numerous vocal concerts and recitals. She has performed with many orchestras in New York City, such as the New York Pops, the New York City Opera, and various Broadway shows.

John McDonough, narrator
John McDonough is an actor who often enjoys the company of musicians. As a narrator, he has shared the stage with many ensembles, including Speculum Musicae, NorthShore Pro-Musica, L'Ensemble, the faculty of the Yale School of Music, and at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (where he has appeared in six seasons since 1983). He tours regularly with Grammy Award winning composer Paul Halley and his Chorus Angelicus in New England, Atlantic Canada and each summer at Tanglewood, and has narrated A Chorister's Christmas at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine (NYC) for over 20 years.

He voiced the title role in Benjamin Britten's Paul Bunyan, first for the Glimmerglass Opera in 1995, and then for the New York City Opera in 1998. He has recorded hundreds of unabridged selections of fiction, classics, history, inspirational and children's literature for Recorded Books, and received an Audie Award in 2006. Audiofile Magazine named him a Golden Voice in 2002. McDonough was named the first national ambassador for RIF (Reading is Fundamental) in 1999. He was seen on the Fox Family Network for three seasons as The All-New Captain Kangaroo and celebrated three Thanksgivings riding in the Macy's Parade with his friends from the Treasure House.

Merwin Foard, Ebenezer Scrooge
Merwin Foard is currently the stand-by for the role of Gomez Addams in the Broadway production of The Addams Family. Previous Broadway appearances include roles in Disney's The Little Mermaid (original cast recording); Sweeney Todd; La Cage Aux Folles; the acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim's Assassin (revival cast recording); Trevor Nunn and Susan Stroman's revival of Oklahoma!; plus Kiss Me, Kate; Jekyll And Hyde; the Broadway revival of 1776 (revival cast recording); Disney's Beauty and the Beast (original cast recording); Mame; Show Boat and Les Miserables.

In his spare "business" time, he has the pleasure to be one in a short list of artists who perform with symphony orchestras from Shreveport to Stockholm. If you pay close attention, you will hear his voice in eight Disney animated films. These are in no particular order, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Home on the Range, Enchanted and Tangled. He has had the pleasure to be involved on the ground floor of the Broadway bound productions of Danny Elfman's Houdini, Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, Kristina, Disney's High School Musical, Secondhand Lions, The First Wives Club, The Addams Family, Ever After and Big Fish.

Married to actress Rebecca Baxter for 21 years, they share their life in New York with their two daughters Phoebe and Bailey.

Scott Coulter, Actor 1/Fred/Bob Cratchit/Young Scrooge/Tiny Tim
For his work in cabaret, Scott has received five MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs), five Bistro Awards and two Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Vocalist and has performed at most of NYC's top rooms including Feinstein's at the Regency, Birdland and The Oak Room at the Algonquin. His self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by TheatreMania and Cabaret Scenes magazine. Scott toured the US as 'Jinx' in Forever Plaid and was in the world premiere of Floyd Collins directed by Tina Landau. He has appeared at NY's Town Hall in numerous editions of the popular Broadway by the Year series (BBTY) and can currently be heard on the Bayview recordings of those performances.

Since 1997, Scott has performed around the country with award-winning songwriting duo Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich in their many revues and tours the world with Oscar and Grammy winning composer Stephen Schwartz along with Liz Callaway and Debbie Gravitte in the revue Stephen Schwartz & Friends. He has taught master classes from Los Angeles to Kalamazoo to Riga, Latvia and is creator of his own unique group vocal coaching series called "Songbook."

As a director his credits include many shows for The Town Hall in NY (Broadway by the Year, Broadway's Rising Stars, Broadway Originals, Broadway Unplugged) and BBTY for The Berkshire Theatre Festival and Broadway by the Bay. Along with Michael Kerker and ASCAP, he's produced and directed several installments of Michael Feinstein's "Standard Time" at Canegie Hall. Scott is co-founder/owner of Spot-On Entertainment (www.Spot-OnEntertainmnet.com) and is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He is currently appearing every Thursday night at Feinstein's at Loews Regency in "11 O'Clock Numbers at 11 O'Clock".

Kyle Sactliffe, Actor 2/Marley/Ghost of Christmas Past and Present
Kyle Scatliffe, baritone, 25, was born in Washington, D.C., and now resides in Westwood, N.J. He studied theatre at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, AMDA, in New York City, where he recently graduated in March 2010. Under the guidance of his voice teacher, Jacklyn Schneider, DMA, he was entered in the Lotte Lenya Competition, winning a Lys Symonette Award. Recently, he has enjoyed success working for Disney Cruise Line, performing as Mereb in Aida, and Marty in Dreamgirls at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina.

Baltimore City College Choir
For the 172 years that Baltimore City College has stood as the "Castle on the Hill," a legacy of musical excellence has been maintained. Initiated years ago with the triumphant voices of the male glee club, the legacy of singing has continued with the development of an elaborate SATB choral program that has garnered a reputation as one of the finest high school ensembles in the region.

The Baltimore City College High School Choral Program consists of over one hundred students ranging from grades 9 through 12. The choir takes pride in performing music from the classics of Handel and Praetorius, to the spirituals and works of Dawson, Hogan, Ellington and Smallwood. In an effort to reach all members, according to their abilities, The Full/Mixed Chorus has been divided into several groups and ensembles. They are: The Concert Choir, an auditioned group of about 50 students, that serves as the main performing group; The Singing/Swingin' Knights Ensemble, consisting of 25 students with advanced levels of music training, who perform literature written for small ensembles from the Renaissance period to the present; The Knights and Daze Show Choir who perform jazz, pop, and show literature with choreography and The Male Glee Club.

The Baltimore City College Choir has delighted audiences on television, radio, and stages in the Baltimore Metropolitan area and along the Eastern seaboard including South Carolina, Georgia, Canada, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts and a host of other states. They have been privileged to share the stage with Marin Alsop, Damon Gupton and The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with Yo-Yo Ma, the Morgan State University Choir and The Baltimore Choral Arts Society. The choir has also participated in numerous competitions and adjudications in which they have consistently received superior ratings with copious awards and 1st place trophies.

Within the last decade, the choir participated in the highly prestigious Disney Honors Invitational Festival in Orlando, Florida; at the All Eastern Gospel Festival at Ithaca College, featuring the music of the late Glenn Burleigh, Dr. Diane White, Rosephayne Powell, Baltimore's own, Dr. Raymond Wise, Dr. Anthony Leach, and most recently, their own director, Linda Hall. One of the most prestigious venues in which the choir has sung, was their 2008 debut at The National High School Choral Festival at Carnegie Hall performing Brahms: A German Requiem with former conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Dr. Craig Jessop. On the home front, the choir performed Too Hot to Handel with Maestra Marin Alsop, The BSO and members of The Morgan State Choir at the Meyerhof and Strathmore.

This year, the choral program of Baltimore City College celebrates 25 years under the direction of Linda R. Hall.

COMPLETE EVENT DETAILS
BSO Special Presentation: A Christmas Carol in Concert
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. - Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH)
Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. - Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH)

Amy Duran, conductor
John McDonough, narrator
Merwin Foard, Ebenezer Scrooge
Scott Coulter, Actor 1/Fred/Bob Cratchit/Young Scrooge/Tiny Tim
Kyle Sactliffe, Actor 2/Marley/Ghost of Christmas Past and Present
Baltimore City College Choir

Tickets range from $32 to $57 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000, 1.877.BSO.1444 or BSOmusic.org.

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