Special St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) holiday programming continues this week with one program at two different venues. That program is, of course, the traditional “Mercy Holiday Celebration.”
Norman Huynh conducts the orchestra and chorus (under guest conductor Kevin McBeth, the director of the IN UNISON Chorus), along with vocal soloist Capathia Jenkins. The program consists of traditional and contemporary holiday songs, a few classical favorites, the ever-popular "Holiday Sing-Along," and two holiday songs from John Williams’s score for “Home Alone”. There will also be the annual "surprise" visit from Santa (usually played by the ever-charming Whit Richert).
Personally, I’m happy to see that Leroy Anderson's “A Christmas Festival” is on the bill again this year. It’s an ingeniously arranged collection of classic carols that I have loved ever since I played the trombone part in my high school orchestra. I dare anyone not to smile at the finale, which combines "Adeste Fideles," "Joy to the World," and "Jingle Bells" in clever counterpoint.
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| Capathia Jenkins Photo courtesy of the SLSO |
If Huynh’s name looks familiar that’s probably because he has made so many guest appearances with the SLSO over the years, including the 2023 New Year’s Celebration. The music director of the Bozeman (Montana) Symphony, Huynh has conducted the SLSO often enough to be very comfortable doing so. His musical taste is impeccable and, based on his performance last December 31st, he has the kind of personal charm that’s essential for gigs like this one, in which the conductor is also the MC.
As for Jenkins, she’s not only a critically praised singer but also a Broadway and film/TV actress, and a vocal coach as well. In addition she is, according to her web site, “no stranger to giving back and standing up for causes that deeply touch her soul.” That includes being is a founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization whose mission is to “celebrate Black excellence in theatre, protect Black talent, and promote and develop all aspects of the craft to preserve the legacy of Black theatre as American culture.” BTU initiatives include the Broadway Marketing Internship Program, Broadway Bound educational program, and The Business of Show, a series of panels and group discussions of “topics relevant to the Black theatre and corporate experience.”
Jenkins is also a member of the board of Covenant House International, dedicated to providing support for young people facing homelessness, and the New York Pops, a NYC-based independent “pops” orchestra with strong community outreach and education initiates.
That is, you have to admit, an impressive resume.
Originally presented only at Powell Hall, the Mercy Holiday Celebration added performances at Lindenwood University's J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts a few years ago. This year the Lindenwood performances are Tuesday and Wednesday, December 17th and 18th, at 7:30 pm. The final pair of performances is at the Stifel Theatre at 2:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday, December 21st and 22nd.
Either way, you can expect a festive, family-friendly program that might reminds us, as Mr. Dickens wrote, that Christmas should be “a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."
Wouldn’t it be nice if more of our fellow citizens believed that and acted accordingly? It would certainly be my Christmas Wish, anyway.
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