TIM BURTON’S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
LIVE IN CONCERT TO FILM
PERFORMED BY YOUR COLORADO SYMPHONY
CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor
Friday, October 25, 2024 at 7:30pm
Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 7:30pm
Boettcher Concert Hall
In Concert Live to Film
Featuring the Voice Talents of:
CHRIS SARANDON
CATHERINE O’HARA
KEN PAGE
WILLIAM HICKEY
GLENN SHADIX
PAUL REUBENS
A BURTON/DI NOVI Production
PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
Music, Lyrics & Score by DANNY ELFMAN
Based on a Story and Characters by TIM BURTON
Adaptation by MICHAEL MCDOWELL
Screenplay by CAROLINE THOMPSON
Produced by TIM BURTON and DENISE DI NOVI
Directed by HENRY SELICK
Soundtrack available on WALT DISNEY RECORDS
This film is rated “PG.”
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Music by Danny Elfman © 1993 Buena Vista Music Company
Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts. All Rights Reserved
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 36 MINUTES. WITH A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION.
First released in 1993, Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was directed by Henry Selick (“James and the Giant Peach”) and based on a story and characters by Tim Burton. The film follows the earnest-but-misguided adventures of Jack Skellington, Halloween Town’s beloved Pumpkin King, as he attempts to take over the Christmas holiday. Against the advice of Sally, a lonely rag doll who has feelings for him, Jack enlists three mischievous trick-or-treaters – Lock, Shock, and Barrel – to help him kidnap Santa Claus. The film is rated “PG.”
Disney Concerts is the concert production and licensing division of Disney Music Group, the music arm of The Walt Disney Company. Disney Concerts produces concerts and tours, and licenses Disney music and visual content to symphony orchestras and presenters on a worldwide basis. Disney Concerts’ concert packages include a variety of formats, such as “live to picture” film concerts and themed instrumental and vocal compilation concerts and range from instrumental-only symphonic performances to multimedia productions featuring live vocalists and choir. Current titles include the Star Wars Film Concert Series (Episodes IV-VII), Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Fantasia, Pixar In Concert, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Alice In Wonderland, Frozen, Ratatouille, The Pirates of the Caribbean series (Episodes I-IV), and Silly Symphonies, which last year collectively accounted for over 400 performances in many of the world’s top concert venues, including Lincoln Center, Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Tokyo Forum and the Hollywood Bowl. Numerous new concert packages and touring productions from Disney’s portfolio of studios, including Disney’s feature animation and live action studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel, are currently in development.
Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is the Music Director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, newly appointed Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony and is the Resident Conductor of the Colorado Symphony. He joined the Colorado Symphony in the 2015/2016 Season as Associate Conductor – a position he held for four years. For three years prior, Dragon held the inaugural position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch.
Dragon has a versatile portfolio ranging from live-to-picture performances including Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, a wide variety of collaborations with artists such as the Wu-Tang Clan, Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Bell, to standard and contemporary orchestral repertoire such as Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto; all areas of which he has become highly sought after. Christopher has become known for his charisma, high energy and affinity for a good costume, consistently delivering unforgettable performances that has made him an audience favourite.
Recent highlights include his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, his German debut with the WDR Funkhausorchester, performances of Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton with Danny Elfman reprising the role of Jack Skellington and historic performances with Nathaniel Rateliff at Walt Disney Concert Hall and David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Upcoming debuts include the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nasvhille Symphony and the LA Philharmonic.
Christopher is highly sought after as a guest conductor and has worked with the San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Modesto Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In Australia, he has guest conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with John Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released on album by ABC Music and won an ARIA the following year.
He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, with both resulting in immediate re-invitations. At the beginning of 2016 Dragon conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Art Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Christopher began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program in Australia under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.
President, Disney Music Group
Ken Bunt
SVP/GM, Disney Concerts
Chip McLean
VP, Disney Concerts
Gina Lorscheider
Business Affairs, Disney Concerts
Darryl Franklin
Phil Woods
Leigh Zeichick
Elena Contreras
Addison Granillo
Narine Minasian
Christy Swintek
Svetlana Tzaneva
Operations, Disney Concerts
Brannon Fells
Royd Haston
Marketing & Publicity, Disney Concerts
Lisa Linares
Technical Supervision
Epilogue Media
Music Preparation
Booker T. White Productions
For Bookings Inquiries: Emily.Yoon@TeamWass.com
HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR!
PERFORMED BY YOUR COLORADO SYMPHONY
WILBUR LIN, conductor
LAUREN SHEALY, actress
Sunday, October 27, 2024 at 2:30pm Boettcher Concert Hall
BACH
Toccata & Fugue in D minor ARR. L. STOKOWSKI
BERLIOZ
JOHN WILLIAMS
SAINT-SAËNS
ROBERT LOPEZ AND
Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 Mvmt. V. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath
“Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens
Danse macabre, Op. 40
“Let It Go” from Frozen KRISTIN ANDERSON-LOPEZ
KLAUS BALDET
Medley from Pirates of the ARR. TED RICKETTS
WAGNER
ELFMAN
Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Flying Dutchman: Overture
“Sally’s Song” from ARR. BRYSON MERKLEY The Nightmare Before Christmas
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 45 MINUTES. WITH NO INTERMISSION.
Sunday’S concert iS SponSored by brownStein Hyatt Farber ScHreck, LLp
PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
Known for his creative programming and inviting stage presence, Wilbur Lin’s career has taken him to symphony halls and opera theaters across the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Taiwan. Currently the Music Director of the Missouri Symphony, Lin was also recently promoted to associate conductor of the Colorado Symphony.
Lin’s 2024/25 season will commence with a production of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (Elixir of Love) with the Missouri Symphony and Landlocked Opera Company, include many classical and pops concerts with both the Colorado and Missouri symphonies, and see his return to Ann Arbor and Taipei symphonies. His other recent highlights include debuts with the Rochester Philharmonic, Oak Ridge, Ann Arbor, Elgin, Taipei, and Indiana’s Richmond symphonies, a new studio recording with pianist Eric Zuber and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and conducting and covering the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops where he recently finished his tenure as assistant conductor (2019-2022).
In addition to his positions with the Colorado, Cincinnati, and Missouri symphonies, in recent years, Lin has conducted the Chamber Philharmonic Taipei, Manchester Camerata, Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de El Salvador, Taipei Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Liverpool Mozart, Academy Orchestra of Taiwan Symphony, Richmond Symphony (IN), and LaPorte Symphony orchestras. As a cover conductor, Lin has worked with, notably, the Taiwan Symphony, Cincinnati Ballet, and Minnesota orchestras. In his role as the assistant (2023/24) and associate (2024-) conductor of the Colorado Symphony, Lin also serves as the Music Director of the Denver Young Artists Orchestra.
A graduate of Riccardo Muti’s Italian Opera Academy, Lin’s operatic endeavors include conducting Verdi’s Macbeth at Teatro Alighieri (Ravenna, Italy), Le nozze di Figaro at the Missouri Theatre with the Missouri Symphony, Die Zauberflöte and Barber of Seville with the Winter Harbor Music Festival (Winter Harbor, Maine), Menotti’s The Medium and Amelia Goes to the Ball as the conductor of Northern Illinois University, and has coached and performed as a pianist with the Indianapolis Opera, Indiana University Opera Theater, Reimagining Opera for Kids, and the Cincinnati Ballet. In 2022, Lin led a new workshop of Robeson by Scott Davenport Richards at the Cincinnati Opera.
Lin held the position of Taiwan Symphony Orchestra International Talent Fellow (2019-2021), Weiwuyin Opera (Taiwan) Conducting Fellow (2019-2020), Lord Rhodes Scholar (2013-2014), was a two-time recipient of Mortimer Furber Prize for Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), and holds a doctoral degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Lin has studied with Arthur Fagen and David Effron at Jacobs, Clark Rundell and Mark Heron at the RNCM, and Apo Hsu at the National Taiwan Normal University. He has also received conducting coaching with, notably, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Riccardo Muti, Sir Mark Elder, Helmuth Rilling, and has assisted Louis Langrée, James Gaffigan, and John Morris Russell, among others.
Lauren Shealy worked as a professional actress for over twenty years; she appeared off Broadway and in regional theaters across the country. The Arvada Center: Nine productions including Bright Star (Ensemble), White Christmas (Betty), Curtains (Georgia), Miracle on 34th Street (Doris), and 1940’s Radio Hour (Anne). The Denver Center: Eight productions including Xanadu (Kira), First Date, The Doyle and Debbie Show (Debbie), and I Love You…Perfect…Change. Lone Tree Arts Center: Evita (Eva), South Pacific (Nellie). Aurora Fox Arts Center: Company (Sarah), Jekyll and Hyde (Lucy). Training: NYU, Tisch.
