Vermont Symphony
Honors Randolph Couple

The annual Vermont Symphony Orchestra Holiday Pops rings in the holiday season in Barre on Friday, Dec. 7 with a special twist. The concert features festivities to thank local supporters and to honor Dickey and Marjorie Drysdale of Randolph for their support of community music-making.

Additionally, Holiday Pops will include an original poem by Rochester High School student Hannah Domas.

The concert at the Barre Opera House starts at 7:30 p.m.

For the last four years the VSO Holiday Pops concert in Barre has featured a "Guild of Supporting Players," consisting of area donors who purchase special seats in the orchestra for the VSO annual holiday photograph. Donors of $100 or more receive two tickets to the concert and a seat with the instrument of their choice on stage for the annual supporters "photo op" during intermission.

"It’s a playful way to thank our supporters," said VSO executive director Alan Jordan, "and it’s a lot of fun. Sometimes supporters send substitute players to the stage, including children and grandchildren," he says. "One year our stand-up musicians included eight tuba players!"

To "conduct" this generous ensemble, this year the VSO will acknowledge the outstanding contributions of the Drysdales for their support of music in the Central Vermont area. Between them, the Drysdales have conducted choruses for 50 years. Marjorie, a graduate of Middlebury College, is one of Vermont’s finest soprano soloists, who has soloed with a dozen orchestras, including the VSO, the Vermont Mozart Festival, and the New England Bach Festival. She founded the 24-member auditioned chorus "Sounding Joy!" and has conducted it for more than 20 years in concerts throughout Vermont. She also conducts a "Sounding Joy Youth Chorus" and teaches voice and flute.

Dickey Drysdale has used his position as editor and publisher of the Herald of Randolph to promote strong promoter of the arts, especially music, and has just written the history of Chandler Music Hall, entitled "Not a Bad Seat in the House." He served as music director of the Randolph Singers, a community chorus, for 25 years starting in 1972, including memorable collaborations with the VSO. He even once conducted a chamber ensemble of the VSO himself.

The annual VSO Holiday Pops concert celebrates the season with the theme,

"Suite Dreams." This playful look at dreams and music inspired by dreams includes excerpts from Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé, The Nutcracker Suite, and additional folk favorites and seasonal classics.

The program, hosted and narrated by VSO Chorus member John Helzer, features

youth soloist Katie Jordan of Charlotte, French horn, with Anthony Princiotti conducting.

Jordan has studied French horn since fourth grade. A senior at Vergennes Union High School, she is the principal horn player with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. In September, she was recorded as one of two young Vermont musicians featured on NPR’s "From the Top," recorded at Chandler Music Hall, and which aired nationally Dec. 2. Katie is the daughter of Karen and Alan Jordan, VSO’s executive director.

The Pops concert will also feature poetry readings by the winners of a contest for high school students organized by the Young Writers Project. Students were asked to submit original poems about skating and dreams. In Barre, winning poems will be read by Hannah Domas of Rochester and by Kestrel Grevatt of Charlotte.

Tickets will be available at the door.