Port Angeles Symphony to present holiday concert

PORT ANGELES — When more than a thousand people make music together, it is one amazing feeling, musician Jonathan Pasternack said.

On Saturday night, he and the 75-member Port Angeles Symphony will join with an auditorium full of singers for the traditional audience carol sing-along — part of the finale for the orchestra’s Holiday Concert.

The symphony, now in its 93rd season, is poised to present an evening of music from around the globe.

Pasternack, the conductor and artistic director, has assembled a program featuring cello soloist Gregorio Nieto, the premiere of a Christmas-themed piece by Port Townsend composer Vincent Oneppo, the rarely performed “Winter Dreams” from Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony, Tyzik’s Chanukah Suite, Camille Saint-Saëns’ passionate Cello Concerto No. 1 and Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs.

The concert will close with the “Champagne Galop” from Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye, and a lighthearted note of celebration, Pasternack said. Guest musician Bruce Skinner will deliver that note on an instrument whose identity is a secret.

The Holiday Concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the symphony’s home venue, the 1,144-seat Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave., following Pasternack’s brief pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m. He’s invited Skinner to join him in that conversation about the evening’s music — and about how it feels to be part of the orchestra, whose players come from all over the North Olympic Peninsula and beyond.

The public also is invited to the orchestra’s final dress rehearsal at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Tickets to both the evening concert and the morning rehearsal are available at portangelessymphony.org and at the door. For more information, call the symphony office at 360-457-5579.

The featured soloist will play both the Saint-Saëns concerto and the Massenet meditation in a way that only he does, Pasternack said.

Cellist Nieto, invited back to Port Angeles after his performance at the Symphony Gala last spring and the Holiday Concert a year ago, is a multifaceted player.

“He’s very creative in his approach to the standard classics, a very passionate and thoughtful musician,” Pasternack said.

Nieto comes from his home in New York City just as his new album with the London Symphony is released on Aria Classics. The recording, to be available soon on CD and on music streaming platforms, highlights two works: the Saint-Saëns concerto Nieto will perform on Saturday, and the Tchaikovsky Rococo theme he played at the 2024 Holiday Concert.

Saturday’s performance is an embrace of the season and of live music’s power to inspire, Pasternack said. The audience sing-along, with carols such as “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World,” will give concert-goers a once-a-year chance to lift their voices along with the orchestra.

We all speak the same language in the concert hall, Pasternack said.

“The way music brings people together, no matter what their differences may be, is one of the most beautiful things in this life.”

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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.