Hagerstown, MD—Music Director Elizabeth Schulze and The Maryland Symphony Orchestra will kick off the holiday season with its annual Home for the Holidays concerts on Saturday, December 17 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, December 18 at 3:00 p.m. at the historic Maryland Theatre in downtown Hagerstown. 

 This year marks the 24^th anniversary of one of the most popular musical holiday traditions in the quad-state area. 

 This year’s special guests will be Elisabeth Turchi, soprano; Louisa Tringali, MSO vocal competition winner; Hagerstown Choral Arts and the Cumberland Choral Society.  And, it wouldn’t be an MSO Christmas celebration without the popular yuletide sing-a-long led by Jolly Old Saint Nick himself. 

 Musical highlights will include Fantasia on Greensleeves, Carol of the Bells, White Christmas, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Gesu Bambino and O Holy Night.

 Elisabeth Turchi made her debut with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra as a guest artist for last season’s A Night at the Opera.  Her charisma and agile vocal styling have charmed audiences throughout the world.  Acclaimed by critics as having a voice that is “nimble, attractive and powerful,” she has established herself as a versatile interpreter of classical music.  A voice teacher at Shepherd University, she holds degrees in vocal performance from Carnegie Mellon and Shenandoah Universities. 

 Louisa Tringali is a senior at Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick.  She has been featured in many theatrical performances, most recently as Maria in the Maryland Theatre Ensemble Theater’s production of West Side Story and as Christine in Thomas Johnson’s The Phantom of the Opera.  Louisa hopes to study vocal performance and music education in college. 

Hagerstown Choral Arts, under the direction of Gregory Snook, was founded in 1993 as a vocal ensemble that would perform both sacred and secular music from a variety of musical periods, styles and cultures.  HCA is an auditioned, community-based volunteer chorus dedicated to bringing the highest level of choral music to Washington County and beyond. 

 The Cumberland Choral Society, directed by Judith Brown, is a diverse ensemble of singers who represent a longstanding tradition of fine choral music in Western Maryland.  For seven decades this group has provided the community and its members with opportunities to enhance their knowledge and enjoyment of many styles of music from both sacred and secular offerings. 

Tickets for the concert are $22 for adults, $18 for students and $12 for children, 12 years of age and younger.  They may be purchased online at www.marylandsymphony.org; in person at 30 W. Washington Street (Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) or by calling 301-797-4000.

The MSO also offers special rates for groups of 10 or more.  Groups are seated together and all processing fees are waved.  For more information, please call the MSO office.

 The Gold Baton Sponsor is M&T Bank and the Silver Baton Sponsors are SpringHill Suites and Youngblood Studios.  Conductor’s Circle sponsors are Thomas & Esther Newcomer and Northwestern Mutual Financial Network (Edward H. Lough, Financial Representative). 

The Maryland Symphony Orchestra is also supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. 

The Maryland Symphony Orchestra is the area’s premier professional orchestra, dedicated to providing musical performances that educate and entertain while enhancing the cultural environment of Western Maryland and the surrounding region. 

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