November 18, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … An all-new Yuletide Celebration, now a Portland holiday tradition for the entire family, will be presented by the Oregon Symphony Dec. 17 through 19 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Dec. 16 at Smith Auditorium in Salem. The same production will be presented by the Eugene Symphony on Dec. 22. Media support for the Oregon Symphony performances is provided by Northwest NewsChannel 8 KGW, KINK fm102 and Oregon Business Magazine, with further support from the Heathman Hotel.
This year’s Yuletide Celebration is an all-new lineup of theatrical productions, including a retelling of “A Christmas Carol” by noted actor Scott Coopwood and a 16-member cast, combined with show-stopping musical and dance numbers. The event’s trademark tap-dancing Santas, however, will return. Hosted by The Oregonian’s Margie Boulé, the show also will feature Dance West, the Portland metro area’s premiere high school dance ensemble, and a vocal ensemble which includes members of the Portland Opera chorus led by Carol Lucas. The role of Mrs. Santa will be played by Pam Mahon, who has performed in a number of Portland Opera productions. The production is directed by Vivienne Elborne, who also directed the Symphony’s staged musicals “The Music Man” and “Camelot.”
Boulé’s award-winning columns have made her a household name throughout the state. In addition to her journalism, Boulé maintains an active performing career, including a five-year run as Audrey, the dim-witted blonde in “Little Shop of Horrors,” and a number of appearances with the Symphony and other ensembles in the Pacific Northwest. Throughout the evening Boulé, backed by the orchestra and chorus, will perform familiar holiday songs including “My Favorite Things,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “We Need a Little Christmas” and “O Holy Night.”
The chorus line of tap-dancing Santas returns for “Santa Dance,” set to “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and performed by Dance West, directed and choreographed by Julane Stites. Dance West is part of the renowned Arts and Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton, the only stand-alone arts magnet school in the state of Oregon.
Highlights of this year’s show include the theatrical narration of “A Christmas Carol,” performed by Coopwood, whom audiences will remember from his appearances as “Egmont” in the Symphony’s all-Beethoven program in February 2004. As Coopwood presents this classic story, using different voices for each character, the acting ensemble, dressed in period costume, will mime the action in front of a scrim.
The Symphony, led by guest conductor Charles Prince, will perform several holiday arrangements including “Deck the Halls,” “Sussex Mummers’ Carol” and “Sleigh Ride.”
The Salvation Army Brass Quintet, directed by Mike Verbout, will perform holiday music in the Prelude programs that are held in the lobby of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall prior to the Saturday and Monday concerts. On Sunday, Dec. 18, the Prelude program will feature the Westminster Presbyterian Church Concert Bell Choir, directed by Anne Stevenson. They will ring in seasonal favorites, including arrangements of “The First Noël” and “Ding Dong Merrily on High.”
Special “Family Night” packages featuring half-price tickets for up to four family members for the Sunday, Dec. 18 evening performance of Yuletide are available. In addition, half-price youth tickets are available in selected sections of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for all Yuletide performances.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 17 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 18 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Monday, Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. An additional performance is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. in Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Tickets range in price from $20 to $82 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Customer Service Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
American conductor Charles Prince studied with Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier and Kurt Sanderling through the Tanglewood Conducting Seminar. While a student at Oberlin, Prince began his conducting training with Robert Page of The Cleveland Orchestra. He also worked extensively with one of Europe’s most eminent conductors, Jorma Panula, in Helsinki.
Prince collaborates with many of the current generation
of composers by showcasing the music of Jason
Robert Brown, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel and Michael
John LaChiusa in a 2000 New York Pops concert. He conducted “Only
Heaven” off-Broadway in 2001 and the world premiere
of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Liberation
Through Hearing” in Houston and Philadelphia
(1996). That same year, Prince also led the world premiere
of Richard Peaslee’s “The Snow Queen,” a
New York State Theatre Institute production based on
the Hans Christian Anderson tale.
In spring 2003, Prince displayed his versatility in several projects; he was musical director of the world premiere of Proust’s “My Life with Albertine” at Playwrights Horizons with music by Ricky Ian Gordon while organizing and producing a highly successful New York performance of two rarely-heard works by Arnold Schoenberg, “Pierrot Lunaire” and “Ode to Napoleon.” He also conducted the world premiere of Suite from Bernstein’s “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” with The New York Pops.
Highlights of Prince’s recent seasons internationally include collaborations with the Moscow Symphony, Kuopio Symphony (Finland), Munich Symphony Orchestra, Sofia (Bulgaria) Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Munich Radio Orchestra. His 2004-2005 season included a return to the Oregon Symphony, his debut with the Seattle Symphony and Plainfield (NJ) Symphony’s gala concert celebrating its 85th season.
Prince’s 2005-2006 season is highlighted by debuts with the Ft. Worth, Lubbock and Elgin Symphonies in addition to a consecutive return to the Oregon Symphony. He also conducts the gala opening of the Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg, Pa with headliners including Lauren Bacall.
Associate Conductor of the New York Pops from 1996-2003, Prince is part of the new generation of acclaimed American conductors. In addition to his work with The New York Pops, he was music director of the Tony Award-winning production of “James Joyce’s The Dead” on Broadway and in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. He previously served as the Second Kapellmeister of Germany’s Gorlitz Opera House. Other guest conducting appearances have been with the Verbier Festival, Utah Opera Festival, Circle Repertory Company, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and Musiktheater der Stadt Coburg.
Margie Boulé is a general interest columnist for The Oregonian, in Portland, Ore. She is a graduate of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. Boulé began her career in Seattle, working at KING-AM and KING-TV in various capacities on and off the air. In 1977 she hired was by KATU-TV in Portland, Ore., where she hosted and produced the number-one rated “AM Northwest” program for 10 years and the “Two at Four” program for three years.
In 1987 she joined The Oregonian as a general interest columnist. She has won numerous regional and national journalism competitions in her 18 years as a print journalist.
Boulé has continued her singing as a sidelight, performing hundreds of commercial jingles (in her favorite, she was the voice of a singing roll of toilet paper), acting and singing in musical theater (including five years as Audrey, the cheap, trashy blonde in “Little Shop of Horrors”) and occasionally singing with the band Pink Martini. For three years she has performed with the Portland improv troupe, ComedySportz. She continues to sing with orchestras throughout the west, including solos with the Oregon Symphony, Vancouver Symphony and Mid-Columbia Symphony. She is the proud mother of one daughter, Alexandra, who is in graduate school at Rice University in Texas.
Vivienne Elborne arrived in the United States 21 years ago from London, England, where she enjoyed a successful performing career as a member of British Actors Equity, appearing at the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Westminster Abbey as well as many other venues throughout the UK. She worked frequently on BBC Radio in the series “Friday Night is Music Night” and “These You Have Loved,” the award-winning “Beau Brummel” and “All Our Christmases,” and performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Thames Chamber Orchestra, the Charles Young Chorale and the London Symphony Orchestra. Other work included the British tour of “The Rolf Harris Show,”session work with Marvin Hamlisch on the James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me” and numerous lead roles in musicals, operettas and oratorios.
Vivienne continued her theatrical and musical career in the United States, playing the title roles in “Peter Pan,” “Cinderella” and “Lettice and Loveage,” narrating “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”and“Alexander Evergreen” with the San Antonio Symphony and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”with the Memphis Symphony. She became Artistic Director of the San Pedro Playhouse, a position she held for 12 years, as well as resident stage director for the San Antonio Symphony’s staged concert musicals and Christmas shows. She has also directed musicals, plays, concert musicals, revues, holiday shows, operasand choral spectaculars for the Colorado Springs Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Lyric Opera of San Antonio, University of Texas, Heartland Festival, Wisconsin and Texas Public Radio. She has written director’s guides for the New York publishers Music Theatre International, scripts for educational symphony shows, and was a panel member of the Texas Commission on the Arts. She was inducted into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993 and is a winner of the JC Penney “Spirit of the American Woman” Award.
Elborne’s huge number of directing credits include the musicals “Titanic,” “Evita,” “Phantom,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Forever Plaid,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “A Chorus Line,” “The Secret Garden,” “Kismet,” “The Mikado,” “My Fair Lady,” “West Side Story,” “Nunsense” and “The King and I.” Play credits include “The Odd Couple,” “The Lion in Winter,” “The Merchant of Venice” and “The School for Scandal.” She has taken her production of “An Evening with Noel Coward” on tour to Russia and the Ukraine and a production of “Oliver” to Mexico.
Elborne now resides in the New York area, where she continues to direct for the theatre as well as coaching and teaching young performers at the Performers Theatre Workshop in New Jersey.
Scott Coopwood has appeared with the Oregon Symphony in performances of Beethoven’s “Egmont” and Schoenberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw.” Coopwood recently played the role of Don Armado in Seattle Shakespeare Company’s “Love’s Labor’s Lost.” He also played Edmund in “King Lear” with Portland Center Stage and Bill in “Lobby Hero” with the Artists Repertory Theatre. Coopwood has performed with Portland Center Stage as Shylock in “The Merchant Of Venice,” the title role in “Hamlet,” Orlando in “As You Like It,” Marley in “A Christmas Carol,” Trigorin in “Seagull” and Straker in “Man and Superman.” Roles in other regional productions include the title role in “Macbeth;” Benedick, Don John and Dogberry in “Much Ado About Nothing;” Angelo in “Measure for Measure;” Terry Meighan in the professional world premier of “Fugitive Kind;” Charles in “Saint Florence;” Carl in “Lonely Planet” and Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet.” He has performed with regional theatres including Portland Center Stage, The Utah Shakespearean Festival, Arizona Theatre Co., Marin Theatre Co., Marin Shakespeare Co., Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Center REP and Borderlands Theatre.
Pam Mahon recently sang the role of Rose in the Staged! production of “The Secret Garden.” She has performed with the Portland Opera in “Street Scene,” “La Belle Hélène,” “The Cunning Little Vixen,” “The Magic Flute” and “Jenufa.” Mahon’s favorite roles have been Mazeppa in “Gypsy” at Portland Center Stage and Aldonza in “Man of La Mancha” at Lakewood Theatre Company. She is also a commercial/film actor and can be seen in the movie “Bigger than the Sky,” starring John Corbett and Patty Duke.
Carol Lucas, an alumna of the Eastman School of Music, was the Chorusmaster/Assistant Conductor for the Portland Opera from 1990 to 2004. In addition to her work in Portland, where she permanently resides, Lucas has been recognized for her musical associations with Wolf Trap, Des Moines, Lake George and Long Beach opera companies. She spent the summer of 1997 as a Director of the Young Artists Program at the Glimmerglass Opera and returned in the summer of 2002 to coach in the young artist program. Lucas has conducted several selected performances of mainstage works in Portland including “Cosi Fan Tutti” and “Lucia di Lammermoor” in 2004.
Lucas currently maintains a coaching practice in the Portland area and has created several vocal workshops this past year. This coming winter, she will travel to Santa Barbara to participate in Opera Santa Barbara’s Puccini Festival and will conduct “Tosca.”
Dance West, one of many specialized programs housed at Arts and Communication Magnet Academy (ACMA) in the Beaverton School District, is a pre-professional training ground for students who desire in-depth technical study and performance experience. Comprised of 20 students who have auditioned for placement, a daily schedule of core academic study, dance technique classes and a two-hour rehearsal for a repertoire of diverse concert works is required. ACMA has received a rating of “exceptional” from the Oregon State Schools Report Card. The rigorous arts-infused academic curriculum, taught by professionals with specialization in the field of dance, provides unique opportunities for the students. They experience the kind of education that prepares them with lifetime skills necessary for success in higher education and in their chosen career path.
