DETAILS

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra kicks off the holiday season with a celebration of classic pieces by Tchaikovsky, Bach and Strauss. Joining the VSO are renowned Austrian soprano, Charlotte Pistor, and dancers from the local Columbia Dance Studio, who are back by popular demand following last year’s triumphant performance. The concert features the 70+ member symphony orchestra led by Music Director and Conductor Salvador Brotons, now in his 29th season with the VSO.

The celebration begins with Rossini’s La gazza ladra, which translates to “The Thieving Magpie.” The familiar piece was famously used in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Then the VSO welcomes dancers from Columbia Dance Company, led by Becky Moore, to perform excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet, including Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy, Arabian Dance and Waltz of the Flowers. Following intermission, famed soprano, Charlotte Pistor, comes to the stage to perform holiday carol favorites such as O Holy Night and an arrangement by Bruce Chase will take the audience on a tour of holiday music from around the world.

What: Gioacchino Rossini’s Overture to La gazza ladra, Tchaikovsky’s Suite No.1 from The Nutcracker, Op.71a, Johann Sebastian Bach / Charles Gounod’s Ave Maria, Johann Strauss’ Vienna Blood Waltz, Op. 354, Pietro Yon Gesù Bambino, Strauss’ Thunder and Lightning Polka, Op. 274, Adolphe Adam’s Cantique de Noël (O Holy Night), Bruce Chase’s Around the World at Christmas Time and Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz, Op. 314

About Columbia Dance Company
Columbia Dance presents dance as a life-enhancing experience to students and the community by setting high artistic standards in classical ballet education and performance, while creating a positive, nurturing and challenging environment where dance appreciation thrives. For more information, please visit columbiadance.org

About Becky Moore
Becky Moore received her ballet training from Laguna Ballet, Contra Costa Ballet, and The School of American Ballet. She also earned degrees in ballet and business at Indiana University, studying on scholarship under Violette Verdy. Becky has danced professionally around the country with The Cincinnati Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet, Ballet West and The Washington Ballet where Washington Ballet Artistic Director, Septime Webre, recognized Becky’s talents off the stage. Soon after she joined the company, he plucked her to start staging the children’s’ roles of his Nutcracker. She eventually become Washington Ballet’s Artistic Coordinator where she served as Ballet Mistresses for Septime Webre’s The Nutcracker and Cinderella, as well as a faculty member for the esteemed Washington School of Ballet. After four years dancing, teaching and setting ballets at The Washington Ballet, Becky joined the staff and faculty of Marin Ballet in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent 11 years as Marin Ballet’s Artistic Coordinator during which time she oversaw the pre-pointe and early pointe training of over 150 students and was introduced to Regional Dance and Ballet Alliance Festivals. In June 2019, Becky proudly joined Columbia Dance as Artistic and School Director. She believes passionately that through dance education we can instill life enhancing qualities in our students. The teamwork, self-discipline, attention to detail and love of physical exercise and creative expression learned and honed in the ballet studio will serve the students indefinitely and carry over into all aspects of their lives

About Charlotte Pistor
The American soprano, Charlotte Pistor, received her musical training at the University of Oregon and completed in 1990 her musical studies at Portland State University. They were followed by master classes in 1990 at the renowned “Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum” (Mozarteum International Summer Academy) in Salzburg with masters such as Peter Schreier and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Charlotte Pistor then started her first operatic engagement at the Salzburg Landestheater (Salzburg State Theater) in 1991, singing the coloratura-soubrette roles there through 1995. She worked there under directors such as Harry Kupfer and John Cox. A freelance artist since 1995, Charlotte Pistor is much in demand as a Lieder, operetta and operatic soloist. For the past 17 years, she has lived and performed in Salzburg, Austria, where she is married and has a family. She has garnered the reputation as an outstanding Mozart interpreter, performing the demanding C Minor Mass, Requiem and Coronation Mass—as first soprano soloist at the Salzburg Cathedral. She has had numerous engagements in Salzburg, but also travels and singsthroughout Europe, with regular guest appearances in Japan and the U.S. In 2006, she sang Johannes Brahms Requiem with the Spokane Symphony, Mozart at the Astoria Music Festival and other repertoire with regional orchestras in the Northwest. She recently sang for Seattle Opera’s Speight Jenkins and Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s Gerard Schwarz. In 2008, she sang a tour of America’s Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Her warm, vibrant, lyric soprano voice combined with her heartfelt interpretations have delighted audiences wherever she sings. Charlotte Pistor sang the entire J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) in Salzburg. In January 2012, she sang Austrian operetta in the beautiful Sala 1 Pau Casals in L’Auditori in Barcelona, Spain. She sang Austrian operetta in St. Wolfgang, Austria, in June 2012. In September 2012, she gave Lieder concerts of water songs sung in French, German and English in Washington State and Oregon.

About The VSO
The VSO, now in its 41st season, has been a cornerstone of Southwest Washington’s arts community, providing symphony music of the highest caliber in live performances and through music education in schools, concert halls, and throughout the community. For more information, please visit vancouversymphony.org.

DATE/TIME

December 14 @ 3 p.m.
December 15 @ 7 p.m.

Skyview Concert Hall
1300 NW 139th Street
Vancouver WA. 98685