In normal times, the Boston Pops, also known as âAmericaâs Orchestra,â would be nearing the end of its nearly monthlong, annual Holiday Pops season at the cityâs Symphony Hall, with at least 40 performances attracting nearly 100,000 concertgoers.
But, this December, when nothing is normal, Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, in his 26th season with the orchestra, presides over an ambitious, highly produced 2020 Boston Pops Holiday Concert stream, available until Jan. 9 for a $30 ticket at bso.org/Now.
It includes several segments filmed at Fenway Park in October with the surreal sight of masked players in sunglasses, as well as an encore archival classic from a previous season featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in a fanciful arrangement of âTwelve Days of Christmas.â
Live holiday concerts and awkward office parties are out this year but that doesn’t mean the season has to be joyless. Some of the city’s holiday favourites and a few newer events have gone virtual this year for cozy at-home streaming. Here’s how to indulge in the festivities this season while you’re stuck at home.
A sing-along classic
1For more than three decades, Tafelmusik has performed Handel’s famous
Messiah in an interactive sing-along rendition led by founding director Ivars Taurins. This year, it’s streaming a performance of Sing-Along
Messiah, recorded in 2010 at Koerner Hall, for free. To December 26, YouTube.
Do This! Holiday events fill weekend calendar
The Holiday Pops show is always a highlight of the Jacksonville Symphony’s season. For this year’s shows, they’ll be joined by singers Erica Gabriel and Brandon Michael Nase and dancers from the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. 7:30 p.m. Friday, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Times-Union Center. $44-$89.
Drew Thomas is Jamaica-born and New York raised, and he knows how to make you laugh. Thomas, a veteran of two seasons of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” is at the Comedy Zone, inside the Ramada Conference Center in Mandarin, which reopened earlier this month. He has shows scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday and 8 and 10 p.m. Saturday. $20.
The richness of holiday celebrations is changing this year from sound to sight.
The pandemic has significantly limited how people can gather, so many local area traditions are taking on new forms, or replaced with new observances altogether.
The popular Smith River Singers, whose concerts bring in crowds topping 1,000, are silent this year, not even appearing in small groups. However, they have released last yearâs concert on video free, for anyone to watch at any time.
The town of Ridgeway and Patrick County canât hold their usual events, so both are having Christmas display contests for homes and businesses instead.
With sleigh bells jingling, the Pops puts on a holiday show in your home instead of theirs
By Marc Hirsh Globe correspondent,Updated December 17, 2020, 2:22 p.m.
Email to a Friend
Conductor Keith Lockhart leads the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall in a performance captured for a streaming version of the orchestra s holiday show.Aram Boghosian/BSO
It wouldnât be Christmas in Boston without the Pops. Thatâs been a tacit article of faith, the Popsâ yearly holiday programming having long since staked its claim as one of the pillars of the Hubâs yuletide celebration.
If any year was going to test that faith, it wouldâve been this one. Given a pandemic that continues to worsen by the day, itâs unlikely anyone would have blamed Keith Lockhart if heâd decided to hibernate through the winter months. But thereâs that pesky thought again: It wouldnât be Christmas without the Pops. And if the Popsâ 2020 holiday program (streaming via BSO.org unt