LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Symphony Christmas concert, taking place on Sunday, Dec. 17, at Lakeport’s Soper Reese Theatre, combines traditional holiday orchestral music, with vocal support from such talented local singers as Lorraine Gatton, and Cory and Sarah Cunningham.

The Christmas concert, in keeping with the Symphony Association’s new schedule, will start at 2 p.m.

Cunningham, in addition to his vocal talents, serves as trombonist with the symphony; Sarah Cunningham, who majored in music – specifically jazz – at Cal State University, Sacramento, later taught music at Sierra College.

Gatton is a favorite who has entertained and delighted concert goers in a number of holiday concerts.

John Parkinson, music director and conductor of the symphony, promises that once again the entire audience will be invited to join in singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” and in a carol sing-a-long, a Christmas tradition.

Along with a storehouse of secular songs, there will be excerpts from the most popular holiday ballet ever written.

Scored by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his 20-minute suite from “The Nutcracker” became an instant classic from its first presentation in 1892.

The balance of the ballet eventually caught up and by the 1960s, ballet companies around the world were reporting that nearly half of their annual revenues came from their Christmas productions of this one piece.

In the absence of dancers, Parkinson has chosen just a modest amount of the familiar music for this year’s Christmas concert.

Another holiday tradition will feature the Lake County Youth Orchestra under the direction of Sue Condit, opening the show with two pieces.

The first is “Noel Nouvelet,” a traditional French carol, and the second is “Angels We Have Heard on High,” a standard Christmas carol which incorporates the melodies of “Alleluia” and “Ave Verum Corpus” written, of course, by Lake County’s favorite classical composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Condit also reports that the Youth Orchestra is recruiting brass and woodwind players for the spring semester, as they expand from strings only to a full orchestra. Interested players may contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..