The Chelsea Symphony’s December 7 Holiday Concert Features Orange Is the New Black Star Annie Golden as the Narrator in Aaron Dai’s The Night Before Christmas

The Chelsea Symphony’s December 7 Holiday Concert Features Orange Is the New Black Star Annie Golden as the Narrator in Aaron Dai’s The Night Before Christmas

The concert also includes selections from Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck, the Christmas Overture by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride

Soloist for this concert include clarinetists Erik Jönsson, Christine Todd, and a string quartet made up of TCS musicians, violinists Nicholas Pappone and E. J. Lee, violist Elizabeth Holub, and cellist Talia Dicker

The holiday concert also includes selections from Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck, the Christmas Overture by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride. As is the tradition, Sleigh Ride will be conducted by the winner of the previous year’s silent auction, Ray Cerabone.

Clarinetist Erik Jönsson performs as featured soloist on Paul Ben-Haim’s Pastorale Variée for clarinet, harp, and string orchestra, clarinetist Christine Todd performs the Adagio movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major, and violinists Nicholas Pappone and E. J. Lee, violist Elizabeth Holub, and cellist Talia Dicker join forces for the string quartet part to Edward Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro.

All attendees are invited to a silent auction and wine reception in support of the orchestra following the concert.

Last season’s concerts featured an Earth Day celebration performing John Luther Adams’s Become Ocean under the whale in the American Museum of Natural History, which was hailed by Lucid Culture as an “epic, intense, mightily enveloping concert.” The Chelsea Symphony is also known for their outreach concerts with the inmates at Rikers Island. TCS brings the whole orchestra, horn quartets, and small string ensembles to perform and engage with the inmates several times each year.

Offering seven concert series from September 2018 through June 2019, each performance in The Chelsea Symphony’s 2018/19 Resolution season features orchestral works with a focus on social action.

Every concert by The Chelsea Symphony features soloists, composers, and conductors taken from the ensemble. This is a collective of New York City professional freelancers coming together to create meaningful, self-governed concerts—a unique model in the classical world.

Listing Information

Engelbert Humperdinck: Three Excerpts from Hänsel und Gretel
Edward Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, op. 47, Pappone, Lee, Holub, and Dicker Quartet
Paul Ben-Haim: Pastorale Variée for clarinet, harp and string orchestra, Erik Jonsson, Clarinet
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K.622, mvt. II Adagio, Christine Todd, Clarinet
Samuel Taylor-Coleridge: Christmas Overture
Leroy Anderson: Sleigh Ride, Ray Cerabone, Guest Conductor
Aaron Dai: The Night Before Christmas, Annie Golden, Guest Narrator

Images

The Chelsea Symphony, hailed as an “enterprising group of young musicians” by Time Out, upends the traditional hierarchy of the classical orchestra: members rotate as featured soloists, conductors, and composers. The self-governing ensemble aims to be a cultural focus for Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and to present vibrant concerts of inspiring symphonic music both old and new. In recent years, The Chelsea Symphony has expanded its reach with performances at Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Symphony Space, Bargemusic, the United Palace Theatre, and New York Fashion Week. In December 2014, The Chelsea Symphony performed at Alice Tully Hall for the premiere of the Golden Globe winning Amazon Original Series Mozart in the Jungle. Musicians from the orchestra can also be seen in the critically acclaimed series: seasons 1–3 are now available on Amazon.com and season 4 will be released on February 16. In the 2016-17 season, The Chelsea Symphony launched an ambitious outreach initiative in collaboration with the New York City Department of Correction, becoming the first orchestra to present programming at Rikers Island Correctional Facility.

# # #