The Etowah Youth Orchestras will rock in the holiday season again this year with the EYO’s Rock & Roll Christmas Concert on Saturday, December 20. The 7 p.m. performance will be held at the Wallace Hall Fine Arts Center on the campus of Gadsden State Community College, and is sponsored by The Exchange Bank of Alabama and Greater Gadsden Tourism.
This year’s program features Christmas music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, James Taylor, CeeLo Green, and John Lennon. The second half of the program is an “all-out rock and roll show,” notes EYO Music Director Mike Gagliardo. After the intermission, the EYO will perform music by Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, Dido, Bruce Springsteen, Mumford and Sons, Phillip Phillips, Dave Matthews Band, A Great Big World, and Florence & The Machine.
The concert will feature the members of the Etowah Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Etowah Symphonic Wind Ensemble, who will form a massive 60-piece orchestra for the show. In addition, for the third consecutive year the show will feature the members of the EYO in different roles. Building on the successes of the past two years, the “front ensemble” – the rock band on the front of the stage, with guitars, bass, drums, fiddle, mandolin, vocals, and other instruments – will be made up of members of the orchestras.
Along with the music, patrons can expect all of the other elements of a great rock and roll show.
“Light and sound design are a big part of the total package,” added Gagliardo. “In addition to the great music, we will have a light and sound package for the show that will be first-class all the way.”
Tickets are $15 and are available online at www.wallacehall.org or in person at the front desk of the Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts.
“We’re hoping for a huge audience that night,” added Gagliardo. “These students have worked extremely hard, and you will not be disappointed.”