North Shore Philharmonic Mesmerizes Giant Crowd

Photo courtesy of North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra

DANVERS, MA — Eight hundred people packed into St. Richard's Church on Dec. 11 to hear the North Shore Philharmonic play their Holiday Pop concert.

Robert Lehmann is the Music Director of the orchestra, and told Patch, "This concert and its sister event at St. Anthony’s in Revere are fantastic community events, that provide substantial donations to area food pantries and allow us to share the talents of our orchestra members with their communities."

This year's program featured holiday favorites like Leroy Anderson’s Christmas Festival and Sleigh Ride, selections from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker’ ballet, a medley of Christmas songs from around the world, soprano soloist Kelly Caufield in “Christmas of Broadway” music from the movie “Frozen," as well as narrating a setting of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” by J. Mark Scearce.

The orchestra also had a Carol Singalong, which Lehmann described as "terrific."

Allison and Brett Kane, both age 10. Their mother, Kelly Kane, is a cellist in the orchestra.

Viola player Rome Pozgay said, "You can imagine the amount of food 800 people donated. They filled a truck!" Principal cellist Rob Bethel mentioned that the children were brought up from the audience to conduct parts of the Nutcracker with a magical baton. He told Patch, "They loved it. They were all over it!"

Robert Bethel at a Philharmonic concert, Image courtesy of Robert Marra

The 6th Annual Sounds of the Holidays was a free event with suggested food shelf donation. The next performance for the orchestra is on Sunday, Feb. 26 at the Swampscott High School. The 65-member group was originally founded as the Lynn Philharmonic Orchestra in 1946, and assumed the current name in 1947.