AMID THE FLURRY of snowflakes and festive fun, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is putting on a true staple of the season, with the annual Yuletide Celebration entering its 39th year this month. Offering Hoosiers even more holiday cheer, this highly anticipated event will be cohosted by Broadway star Ashley Brown and the multi-genre showman Curtis Bannister, both joined by the ISO’s very own principal pops conductor, Maestro Jack Everly.
Though well known for its tap-dancing Santas and captivating arrangements of classics and new works alike, this year’s Yuletide Celebration will feature even more offstage holiday festivities, as the lobby of the Hilbert Circle Theatre is transformed into a winter wonderland. Its Christmas tree and dazzling decorations are still as beautiful as ever, but guests can also expect to enjoy tasty treats from local bakeries, all while listening to carols on the symphony’s soothing Wurlitzer organ.
Always merry about this heartwarming Hoosier tradition, Everly, acclaimed around the world, is grateful to conduct the Yuletide Celebration once again. “The ISO musicians’ willingness to try anything, and on top of that, having the immense talents to bring it to life, is something that any conductor would envy,” he says, “I’m one of the lucky ones.”
Having spent a quarter of a century in New York City, where he was instrumental to the success of many Broadway productions and the conductor of the esteemed American Ballet Theatre, Everly is by no means unacquainted with the beauty of an extravagant show. The annual Yuletide Celebration is, owing to the dedication of all those who bring it to life, in many ways one of the best of such performances Indiana has to offer. Audiences can expect an event that is at once comfortably familiar and fantastically unexpected. Even with the wide extent of his career conducting ensembles across the world, Everly notes that, though many wish they could, “no other orchestra produces anything like it.”
When asked if he had a favorite Christmas song, he stated that the list was long. “For me, the holiday season is musically quite rich and deep, and to be able to arrange and orchestrate this trove for the ISO, then hear them play what I’ve written, and then conduct them for 30 or so performances each December, well, as I said: I’m one of the lucky ones.”
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will perform the annual AES Indiana Yuletide Celebration December 5–23 at Hilbert Circle Theatre, 45 Monument Circle.
