By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
Amarillo Symphony will celebrate the Christmas season with a pair of family concerts Saturday.
The Happy Holiday Pops concerts are scheduled for 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Buchanan St. Tickets are $19 to $55, plus fees.
"I've been dying to do one in Amarillo since I arrived," said Jacomo Bairos, the Symphony's music director and conductor. "It'll be a real family-friendly event with a lot of singalongs."
The orchestra hopes the concert — which will be filmed by Panhandle PBS for broadcast in December 2017 — becomes an annual tradition.
"There really hasn't been an orchestral holiday offering from the Amarillo Symphony (since a series of New Year's Eve concerts)," said Corey Cowart, the Symphony's executive director. "Jacomo was very interested and saw the opportunity and the need.
"This is just a good time to celebrate the season with the family through music."
The concerts will feature excerpts from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride," Ralph Vaughn Williams' "Fantasia on Greensleeves," the "Hallelujah" chorus from George Frideric Handel's Messiah, "Winter Wonderland" and more.
Amarillo Master Chorale will join the Symphony for several pieces, including a concert-ending singalong with the audience.
"We're excited to be adding something to the holiday that's a little different than what people are doing with their church groups," said chorale director Nathaniel Fryml. "Nothing beats (caroling). We're hoping that people are singing along through the whole program, at least in spirit, and there will be several opportunities for them to jump up and participate."
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/chipchandlerwriter on Facebook.
