MEL TORMÉ AND ROBERT WELLS/RALPH BLANE AND HUGH MARTIN/arr. Chris Waldin
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Alli Mauzey, soprano
TRADITIONAL/arr. Bud Wayne Bisbee
A German Music Box
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble
Suite from The Nutcracker, Op. 71a
IIb. Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy
IIc. Russian Dance (Trepak)
RANDOL ALAN BASS
The Night Before Christmas
Alli Mauzey, narrator
INTERMISSION
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Hodie [This Day]
I. Prologue
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
JAMES LORD PIERPONT/arr. Paul Hemmer
Jingle Bells à la Barbara
Alli Mauzey, soprano
JERRY HERMAN/arr. Robert Wendel
We Need a Little Christmas
Alli Mauzey, soprano
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
KIM GANNON, WALTER KENT, AND SAMUEL RAM/arr. Dewells Barton
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Alli Mauzey, soprano
TRADITIONAL
The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came
Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble
TRADITIONAL/arr. John Wasson
Bellsong Fantasy
LEROY ANDERSON
Sleigh Ride
VARIOUS/arr. John Finnegan
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble
Christmas Sing-along Jingle Bells
Joy to the World
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Silent Night
Deck the Halls
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Alli Mauzey, soprano
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
TRADITIONAL/arr. Gary Fry
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Alli Mauzey, soprano
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble
Hometown Holiday Pops is presented by WE ENERGIES FOUNDATION. This weekend’s media sponsor is WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO.
The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. All programs are subject to change.
Guest Artist Biographies
ALLI MAUZEY
Alli Mauzey was most recently seen starring on Broadway in the critically acclaimed world premiere of Kimberly Akimbo. Before that, Mauzey starred as Ernestina in the Tony Award-winning revival of Hello, Dolly! Other Broadway credits include Glinda in Wicked, a role she also performed to critical acclaim on the First National Tour and with the San Francisco company; Lenora in the musical Cry-Baby, for which she won a Theatre World Award and was nominated for a Drama League Award; and Brenda in Hairspray (both on Broadway and in the original company of the First National Tour). Mauzey also originated the role of Lenora in the preBroadway production of Cry-Baby at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego (Theatre Critics Circle Award). Other New York credits include New York City Center’s Encores! series in the role of Minerva in The Golden Apple as well as Sydney in It’s a Bird...It’s a Plane...It’s Superman and the OffBroadway production of Red Eye of Love. Regionally, she has appeared as Mallory in City of Angels for Reprise! in Los Angeles, Snookie in 110 in the Shade at the Pasadena Playhouse, and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors at The Muny, for which she was nominated for a Kevin Kline Award.
Mauzey has also had the pleasure of performing with symphony orchestras across the country, including playing Ellie in Show Boat with the New York Philharmonic and the title role in Cinderella alongside the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, benefiting the charity Show Hope. Recent and upcoming engagements include the Philly Pops, Pittsburgh Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Maryland Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Maui Pops Orchestra, Corpus Christi Symphony, Sarasota Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Shreveport Symphony, Desert Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Missouri Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Idaho State Civic Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Akron Symphony, Houston Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Allentown Symphony, Lincoln Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, and Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen (Germany). She has a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in drama and a minor in music.
MILWAUKEE HANDBELL ENSEMBLE
Over the past 21 years, the Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble has gained wide popularity in our community and beyond. MHE is an auditioned community handbell ensemble under the direction of Jana Larson with 13 ringers who play 73 handbells and 73 hand chimes.
Within these 21 years, MHE has become known for their astonishing, memorized performances, for premiering new arrangements of popular music, and for being the recording choir for American Guild of English Handbell Ringers (AGEHR) Publishing. They have been guest performers with the Midwest Vocal Express, Bel Canto Chorus, Present Music, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus. MHE has performed numerous times with the MSO under conductors Doc Severinsen, Stuart Chafetz, Jeff Tyzik, and Andreas Delfs. In December 2023, MHE was invited to perform at the halftime show for the Milwaukee Bucks.
MHE has also expanded their reach by taking mini-tours to Minnesota, South Dakota, and Michigan, performing by invitation at the Area 7 Handbell Festival in Sioux Falls in 2016 and playing the closing concert of the National Seminar for the Handbell Musicians of America in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2018.
MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY
Guest Artist Biographies
In May of 2013, the Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble became a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Their mission is “To further the art of handbell ringing by educating, inspiring, and informing others of the art form” by showcasing advanced handbell repertoire while serving as a musical resource for the Milwaukee metropolitan area and beyond.
MHE has recorded two CDs: An American Sampler (including boogie-woogie blues, jazz, gospel, and more) and their most recent release, An MHE Christmas Celebration
Guest Artist Biographies
TIMOTHY BENSON
Timothy Benson has been the assistant director of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus since 1994 and has prepared the chorus for several of its previous Holiday Pops concerts.
He has served as director of music and organist at several churches since playing his first mass at age 10. A Milwaukee native, he began playing the piano at the age of five before taking up pipe organ studies. His former teachers include S. Theophane Hytrek, Christopher Herrick, and Peter le Huray.
Graduate studies in music took Benson to England, where he studied musical composition at Cambridge University. Teachers included Paul Patterson and Robin Holloway, in addition to his private studies in Wales with William Mathias. A summer session in Croydon at the Royal School of Church Music included further studies in organ with Peter Hurford and Stephen Cleobury and vocal pedagogy and choral conducting with Philip Ledger and George Guest. That summer saw Benson as the guest organist in a performance of J. S. Bach’s Magnificat for Her Majesty, the Queen Mother.
Upon returning to the U.S., he joined the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, then under the directorship of its founder, Margaret Hawkins, who asked him to pursue yet further graduate studies with her at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. While there, he studied choral conducting with Hawkins, orchestral conducting with Daniel Forlano, and vocal pedagogy with Signe Quale.
Benson enjoys the life of working with the wonderful musicians of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, bringing the soul-enriching beauty of music to the wider community, providing great organ music and choral direction to churches in the area, and maintaining a small but thriving number of both organ and voice students.
2024.25 SEASON
KEN-DAVID MASUR
Music Director
Polly and Bill Van Dyke
Music Director Chair
EDO DE WAART
Music Director Laureate
BYRON STRIPLING
Principal Pops Conductor
Stein Family Foundation Principal Pops
Conductor Chair
RYAN TANI
Assistant Conductor
CHERYL FRAZES HILL
Chorus Director
Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair
TIMOTHY J. BENSON
Assistant Chorus Director
FIRST VIOLINS
Jinwoo Lee, Concertmaster, Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair
Ilana Setapen, First Associate Concertmaster, Thora M. Vervoren First Associate Concertmaster Chair
Jeanyi Kim, Associate Concertmaster
Alexander Ayers
Autumn Chodorowski
Yuka Kadota
Shin Lan**
Elliot Lee**
Dylana Leung
Kyung Ah Oh
Lijia Phang
Yuanhui Fiona Zheng
SECOND VIOLINS
Jennifer Startt, Principal, Andrea and Woodrow Leung Second Violin Chair
Ji-Yeon Lee, Assistant Principal (2nd chair)
John Bian, Assistant Principal (3rd chair)*
Hyewon Kim, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd chair)
Glenn Asch
Lisa Johnson Fuller
Clay Hancock
Paul Hauer
Gabriela Lara
Janis Sakai**
Mary Terranova
VIOLAS
Robert Levine, Principal, Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair
Georgi Dimitrov, Assistant Principal (2nd chair), Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Viola Chair
Samantha Rodriguez, Assistant Principal (3rd chair)
Elizabeth Breslin
Alejandro Duque
Nathan Hackett
Erin H. Pipal
CELLOS
Susan Babini, Principal, Dorothea C. Mayer Cello Chair
Shinae Ra, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair)
Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus
Madeleine Kabat
Peter Szczepanek
Peter J. Thomas
Adrien Zitoun
BASSES
Jon McCullough-Benner, Principal, Donald B. Abert Bass Chair*
Andrew Raciti, Acting Principal
Nash Tomey, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair)
Brittany Conrad
Omar Haffar**
Paris Myers
HARP
Julia Coronelli, Principal, Walter Schroeder Harp Chair
FLUTES
Sonora Slocum, Principal, Margaret and Roy Butter Flute Chair
Heather Zinninger, Assistant Principal
Jennifer Bouton Schaub
PICCOLO
Jennifer Bouton Schaub
OBOES
Katherine Young Steele, Principal, Milwaukee Symphony League Oboe Chair
Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal
Margaret Butler
ENGLISH HORN
Margaret Butler, Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to John Martin
