Stream the BSO 2020 Holiday Pops Stream Concert, December 10

One of New England's most popular Christmastime traditions continues in 2020 with a virtual Holiday Pops program that will feature the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Keith Lockhart in favorites of the season, December 10 through January 9, at www.bso.org/now.

Drawing from performances recorded at Symphony Hall in November and Fenway Park in October, as well as some special archival performances, this online program embodies the Holiday Pops' classic concert formula of combining beloved seasonal classics such as "Sleigh Ride," and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with newer content and inspirational readings of Christmastime favorites. Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops will welcome eight Boston-area vocalists-Teresa Blume, David Guzman, Renese King, Philip Lima, David McFerrin, Fran Rogers, Erica Spyres, and Kristen Watson-who were all recorded at GBH's Frasier Studio wearing masks and abiding by social distancing protocols in place for everyone's protection. Among the selections spotlighting these singers in solo and ensemble configurations are "O Holy Night," "Mary, Did You Know?," and "Mary's Little Boy Child."

Keith Lockhart and members of the brass and rhythm sections of the Boston Pops will be featured in special video selections filmed at Fenway Park, where the orchestra was recorded playing in left field in front of the Green Monster, the dugout, center field, and the grandstands. The December 10 program will feature two selections from the Fenway Park video shoot: "Must Be Santa"-joined by Wally the Green Monster in full Santa Claus suit-and "Good King Wenceslas."

Portions of the program will feature inspirational poems and readings recited by Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart to complement the musical selections: "Christmas Canticles" with an excerpt from Maya Angelou's "Amazing Peace"; "O Holy Night," sung by David Guzman, with words of Rabbi Avi Weiss; "Of Nights, Lights and Brass," with words of Anne Frank; and "The Gifts of Great Meadows"-a film and musical presentation created by Boston Pops Principal Horn Gus Sebring-with "A Carol of Color" by Mary Jenness.

Since no Holiday Pops program is complete without performances of the great choral works of the season, 156 members of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus will join the festivities both archivally and virtually for a beloved medley, "Home for the Holidays," and 58 young singers of the Boston Symphony Children's Choir join the performances virtually as well for a performance of "Christmas Time Is Here." The TFC and BSCC are under the direction of James Burton.

This year, the musical selections take special advantage of the digital format for festive effect; there will special online appearances by several celebrity narrators who will recite different couplets from "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("'Twas the Night Before Christmas"), including Andris Nelsons, John Williams, Thomas Wilkins, Ayanna Pressley, Billy Porter (right), Ming Tsai, Governor Charlie Baker, Mayor Marty Walsh, Bill Belichick, Linda and John Henry, and Michael Bloomberg, among others. Since every Holiday Pops program includes a visit from Santa Claus, this year's online concert won't disappoint, as Santa is scheduled to arrive just in time to deliver his own special supply of digital surprises. The Boston Pops 2020 Holiday Celebration video stream ends with previously recorded selections: the Boston Pops' rollicking arrangement of "The 12 Days of Christmas," "A Merry Little Sing-Along," and "Let There Be Peace on Earth" accompanied by an updated version of last year's popular video featuring Boston Public School students singing, now with illustrations by local elementary school students that depict their ideas of peace.

The Boston Pops 2020 Holiday Celebration will be accompanied by a digital program book that includes fun features such as festive holiday recipes, historical facts about Holiday Pops concerts over the years, coloring pages, and scavenger-hunt activities that further engage families with the sights and sounds of the Holiday Pops concert. Created in collaboration with Wing Press, the program book has the look and feel of a printed publication, with page-turn animations, page shadows, and more.

Following upon the success of the Holiday Pops' first-ever sensory-friendly concert in 2019, this year's program will include options to help make the program more meaningful and accessible to a broader audience. These include captions, audio descriptions, and supplementary activities designed for families to enjoy at home, produced by the BSO's Education Department in consultation with Juvo Autism and Behavioral Health, which will be included in the concert's digital program book.

In lieu of the special annual holiday visits to Boston Children's Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, Keith Lockhart and the brass players and rhythm section of the Pops Orchestra will produce a 30-minute video concert featuring selections recorded at Fenway Park in October. Distributed to hospitals throughout the holiday season hospitals through their closed-circuit TV networks (list also includes Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Emerson Hospital), this special video concert includes "Good King Wenceslas," "Sleigh Ride," "Must Be Santa"(with Wally the Green Monster dressed as Santa), and "Frosty all the Way"-all filmed at Fenway Park. The program will also include archival and pre-recorded selections, including performances by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus ("Home for the Holidays") and the Boston Symphony Children's Choir ("Christmas Time Is Here"). The special hospital program will end with "Let There Be Peace on Earth."

On December 9, A Company Christmas at Pops-Home for the Holidays-co-chaired by Steve Gannon, General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer, Citizens Financial Group, and Andy Plump, President, Research & Development, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.-will begin with a 6:30 p.m. virtual Pre-Concert VIP Reception for Lead Sponsors and a simultaneous virtual Children's Program, a popular tradition of every Holiday Pops corporate event since 1983. The Keith Lockhart-led A Company Christmas at Pops-Home for the Holidays concert stream will begin at 7 p.m., followed by an exclusive online live conversation between Mr. Lockhart and GBH's Jim Braude, host of Greater Boston and co-host of Boston Public Radio. This year's virtual gala performance-enjoyed from the comfort of home-will feature many of the selections of the December 10 program outlined above, alongside a few special surprises developed with the event's corporate audience in mind. To date, the event has raised close to $800,000, which is over 50% more than its original $500,000 fundraising goal.

A Company Christmas at Pops-Home for the Holidays is a virtual reimagining of a longtime annual corporate event in which the business community comes together to celebrate the holidays and raise funds for the Boston Pops and the education and community programs of its parent company, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Now in its 37th year, this extraordinary partnership between the Greater Boston business community and the Boston Symphony Orchestra offers leaders from every industry the opportunity to entertain their valued clients, employees, and friends in the company of Boston's top-level corporations, capped off with a special Holiday Pops performance by Keith Lockhart and the one-and-only Boston Pops Orchestra.

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