Columbus Symphony Presents Holiday Pops, 12/3-5

A great annual Columbus tradition continues as Ronald J. Jenkins leads the Columbus Symphony and Chorus in some of the season's most-loved holiday songs and carols. The event will also include performances by the Columbus Children's Choir, violinist Charles Wetherbee, dancers Justin Gibbs and Darien Crago, narrator Linda Dorff, baritone Daniel Maceyak, and several children from BalletMet with a special guest appearance by Santa.
 
The Columbus Symphony presents Holiday Pops at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) December 3-5. Show times are Friday, December 3, at 8pm; Saturday, December 4, at 3pm and 8pm; and Sunday, December 5, at 3pm. Tickets are $20.50-$66.50 for adults and $11.50-$33.50 for children, and can be purchased at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 228-8600 or (800) 745-3000. The Ohio Theatre Ticket Office will also be open two hours prior to each performance.
 
The Holiday Pops program is as follows:
 
Courtney's Holiday Pops Overture with the Columbus Symphony and Chorus.
 
Handel's For Unto Us a Child is Born from Messiah with the Columbus Symphony and Chorus.
 
Bach-Gounod's Ave Maria with featured violinist Charles Wetherbee and the women of the Columbus Symphony Chorus. 
Main's What Tidings Bringest Thou from Wonder Tidings, a new work for the Columbus Symphony and Chorus orchestrated for the 2010 concert.
 
Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Greensleeves with dancers Justin Gibbs and Darien Crago.
 
Isaacson's Light the Legend with the Columbus Symphony and Chorus.
 
Hogan's Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King with the Columbus Symphony Chorus
 
Courtney's A Musicological Journey Through the 12 Days of Christmas with the Columbus Symphony and Chorus
 
- INTERMISSION -
 
Willcocks' Fanfares and Carols - O, Come, All Ye Faithful, The First Nowell, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing with the Columbus Symphony and Chorus. Audience participation encouraged.
 
Britten's This Little Babe from A Ceremony of Carols with the Columbus Children's Chorus.
 
Courtney's Carols of the Night (O Holy Night and Silent Night) - Columbus Symphony, Chorus, and Columbus Children's Chorus. Audience participation encouraged.
 
Amundson's Reindeer Rock with the Columbus Children's Chorus and dancers Justin Gibbs and Darien Crago.
 
Anderson's Sleigh Ride with the Columbus Symphony
 
Bass' The Night Before Christmas with children from BalletMet and Linda Dorff as narrator.
 
Kessler's It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year with Columbus Symphony, Chorus, Columbus Children's Chorus, and baritone Dan Maceyak.
 
About Conductor Ronald J. JenkinsRonald J. Jenkins has been director of the Columbus Symphony Chorus and Chamber Chorus since 1982. In this position, he is responsible for one of the largest volunteer organizations in the Columbus Symphony family, as he prepares the members of the Chorus for multiple appearances with the Symphony each season.
 
About the Columbus Symphony ChorusThe Columbus Symphony Chorus, under the direction of Chorus Master Ronald J. Jenkins, is currently celebrating its 50th season. The 130-member chorus, comprised entirely of volunteer singers from central Ohio, performs major works from Bach to Mahler.
 
About The Columbus Children's ChoirThe Columbus Children's Choir is celebrating its 15th anniversary this season. The organization has nine choirs for children in grades 3-12 and Young Musicians' Classes for K-2. The choir has performed at the national conferences of the American Choral Directors' Association, Organization of American Kodály Educations, and American Orff-Schulwerk Association. They have shared their artistry with audiences in the US, Canada, Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, and Italy.
 
About Featured Violinist Charles WetherbeeA graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, violinist Charles Wetherbee has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Canada, Mexico, and the US. He has been Concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony since 1994. A devoted chamber musician, Wetherbee is a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, with whom he tours and performs regularly. He is on faculty at Ohio Wesleyan University, and is the Artistic Director of the Marble Cliff Chamber Players, a music festival based in Columbus. He is also a founding member of the Opus 3 piano trio, and artistic director of the Snake River Chamber Players, in Keystone, Colorado.
 
About Featured Dancer Justin Gibbs Justin Gibbs, Assistant Professor of Dance at Wright State University, danced professionally for 18 years with the Grand Rapids Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Chautauqua Ballet, Contrast Dance Company, and BalletMet. Gibbs has been privileged to perform works by choreographers like Dwight Rhoden, Martino Mueller, Lynne Taylor Corbett, Alvin Ailey, David Shimotakahara, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, and George Balanchine, to name a few. As an accomplished choreographer, he has received fellowships from the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Gibbs has created works for the Columbus Symphony and collaborated with BalletMet. Gibbs has been on faculty at Tulsa Ballet Theatre, BalletMet, and New Albany Ballet School.
 
About Featured Dancer Darien Crago
Darien Crago will be a senior in musical theatre this fall at Wright State University. She enjoyed her first summer with Weathervane last year, where she performed Sweet Charity (Helene), Into the Woods, and The Secret Garden (Rose). Her university credits include The Pajama Game (Poopsie, Steam Heat), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Schwarzy), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Ethel Peas), West Side Story, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hello Dolly, and Twelfth Night. Additionally, Crago has performed in A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, and various improvisational theatre.
 
About Narrator Linda Dorff
Linda Dorff is an Actors' Equity member and a 27-year CATCO veteran. Favorite roles at CATCO include those in The Club, Beyond Therapy, Three Viewings, The Gin Game, All My Sons, The Grapes of Wrath, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She appeared at Otterbein as guest Equity artists in Les Liaisons Dangereous, Steel Magnolias, and A Little Night Music. Other venues include Dayton's Human Race Theatre. In 2008, Dorff received the Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle's Roy Bowen Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
About Featured Baritone Dan Maceyak Dan Maceyak is happy to be back home in Columbus for the holidays, and honored to be a part of this year's Holiday Pops. A New York City resident and graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, he has spent the last 12 years of his life as a professional working actor. Maceyak has had the good fortune to have performed on and off Broadway, as well as on numerous national tours in such productions as The Lion in Winter, South Pacific, Grease, and Pacific 1860. In his 12 years in New York, he has shared the stage with actors such as Laurence Fishburne, Stockard Channing, Ruth Williamson, Michael Nouri, and others. He has performed in some of the country's top regional theaters in productions of Forever Plaid, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and Ragtime to name a few. On television, he has appeared in episodes of "All My Children" and "Saturday Night Live." Maceyak feels he has come full circle as a one-time member of the wonderful and talented Columbus Children's Choir.