12/01/2006

TSO brings holidays home

Green Bay conductor directs Traverse orchestra's Christmas concert

By Tom Carr

tcarr@record-eagle.com

Traverse Symphony Orchestra presents an annual favorite, "Home for the Holidays," in Traverse City's Lars Hockstad Auditorium Dec. 8-10.

TRAVERSE CITY — Green Bay Symphony Orchestra music director Bridget-Michaele Reischl will call another bay home for a weekend as she conducts the Traverse Symphony Orchestra's annual "Home for the Holidays” concert.

Maestra Reischl will lead the orchestra, as well as several guest performers and groups.

"I'm thrilled,” Reischl said. "I feel like I've been waiting five years to play this concert.”

She comes here because she's a friend of Andy Buelow, executive director of the TSO. She worked with Buelow's father Robert Buelow at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and she and Andy had been looking for an opportunity to work together. Performances are scheduled for 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Dec. 8 and 9; and 3 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 10, at Lars Hockstad Auditorium.

Joining the orchestra are guest soprano Nicole Philibosian, who has performed with New York City Opera among others, a cappella choral group The Overtones, bagpipers from the Grand Traverse Pipe & Drums and the Cherry Capital Ringers handbell choir.

Also sharing the bill are the Northwestern Michigan College Chorale and Chamber Singers.

The show will be as varied as those performing.

Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus” will be presented, as well as more modern fare like "I'll Be Home for Christmas” and a variety of other recognizable tunes. The orchestra will be featured in Suite No. 1 from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and "Carol of the Bells.”

Voices are the focus in Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,” the Christmas Cantata by Daniel Pinkham, the "Hallelujah Chorus” and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas,” among others.

Philibosian will be showcased on "Ave Maria” and "O Holy Night,” while The Overtones will perform "Go Tell it on the Mountain” and "I'll be Home for Christmas.”

"Greensleeves” will feature the Pipe & Drums, and the Ringers will be heard on "Angels We Have Heard on High” and "Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day.”

The show will also feature an audience sing-along portion, with favorites like "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

"We had a gas putting this concert together,” Reischl said of working with NMC Choral Director Mark Puchala and TSO General Manager Kathleen Light

"I never get a chance to do the light, entertaining holiday concerts,” she said. "Someone else does it with my orchestra in Green Bay, so it's nice to get a chance to do it with you all.”

Reischl has been director in Green Bay since 2001 and was the first American to win the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition in 1995. She studied under Seiji Ozawa and her recent engagements have included the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Dayton Philharmonic, as well as orchestras in Italy and Greece.

Philibosian has performed in opera houses in New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Hawaii, France and South Korea.

Tickets are available by calling 947-7120 or online at www.tso-online.org.