MSO to perform’Holiday Joy’

The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director Julien Benichou, will celebrate the season with classical favorites at the Mid-Atlantic Symphony’s “Holiday Joy” concert on Saturday, Dec. 5, at Mariner’s Bethel Church, Route 26 and Central Avenue, Ocean View, at 7:30 p.m.

Guest Artist Amy Lynn Call, soprano, and Brian Ming Chu, baritone, along with the musicians of the MSO symphony, will perform seasonal favorites from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” seasonal carols, such as “Gesu Bambino,” “White Christmas” and “Cantique de Noel,” and more. The concert will end with the symphony and soloists leading the patrons in the traditional holiday sing-along.

Call is making her MSO debut. She will return to Oper Chemnitz in Germany in 2010 as Queen of the Night in Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” which she performed in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2007, she repeated the same role in Döbeln and Freiberg. She makes her Charleston Symphony Orchestra debut in 2010 as guest soloist in “The Creation.”

In 2008, she sang Violetta at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and Opera Ariasat the Deutsches Mozartfest in concert. Other operatic roles include Konstanze, Marguerite, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Mimi, Violetta, Dido and Rosalind.

Also performing with the symphony is baritone Brian Chu. Chu has collaborated with numerous choral ensembles, including Monteverdi’s “1610 Vespers” with Boston’s The King’s Noyse, Bach’s “St. John Passion” and Handel’s “Messiah” with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra of New York, Mozart’s “Requiem” and Handel’s “Israel in Egypt” at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, and the American premiere of Telemann’s oratorio “Die Auferstehung” in Pittsburgh.

Chu has been a featured soloist with diverse groups along the eastern seaboard, including The Dryden Ensemble’s series of Bach cantata concerts in Princeton and Pennsylvania, the Handel Choir of Baltimore, The Philadelphia Singers, Washington’s Orchestra of the 17th Century, the Capitol Hill Chorale and the Hopkins Symphony in Baltimore. Most recently he was heard at the Phillips Collection in Washington.

Tickets cost $35 for adults or $10 for students. For tickets and information, call 1-888-846-8600. For more information about the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, visit the Web site at www.midatlanticsymphony.org.

The guest artists performing in the Mid-Atlantic Symphony’s Holiday Joy concert are sponsored by The Wilford Group at Morgan Stanley/Smith Barney. The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra concerts are supported by grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Maryland State Arts Council, The Talbot County Arts Council, the Worcester County Arts Council, The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, the Sussex County Council, The Carl M. Freeman Foundation, The Joshua M. Freemen Foundation and the Quiet Resorts Charitable Foundation.