Q: Tell us about your collaborators for this show: what do they add? What unique artistic vision do they bring?
A: All of the collaborators provide valuable contributions. The single collaboration that is most important for creating the show is our director and choreographer, Parker Esse. His sense of pace, light, costuming, and experience—the series of stories within a larger story framework—make this concert unique and extraordinary. The singers and dancers bring their own spark and inspire Parker to elevate the program to the highest levels.
Q: What was it like to have the program be fully remote last year? What was special about that? What was missing?
A: The great thing about our fully remote production was the number of people who were able to hear and see their Omaha Symphony in the celebration of Christmas music. What was missing was the personal contact, the connection between performer and audience, the connection between performer and performer, the embrace that occurs when people come together—that is the essence of the human experience in general, and the joy of celebrating Christmas in particular.