3nd Annual Holiday Youth Music Festival
Firehouse Arts Center Hosts Local Young Performers
Pleasanton, Calif. The fun, holiday-themed afternoon for the whole family returns to the Firehouse Arts Center Stage on Saturday, November 28, at 2:00 p.m. The 3nd Annual Holiday Youth Music Festival will feature over a dozen young local musicians, from middle school through high school ages, presenting original performances inspired by classic holiday storylines. The multi-talented young artists and writers will perform live numbers they have been creating and producing throughout the fall.
General admission tickets: students $5, adults $10. Tickets available at www.firehousearts.org, 925-931-4848, or at the Box Office at the Firehouse Arts Center, 4444 Railroad Avenue, Pleasanton. Free parking.
With roots in the well-established annual (spring) Youth Music Festival, this Holiday edition draws a wide variety of musicians, running the gamut from hard rock to classically trained players. Festival Director and City of Pleasanton Youth Programming Coordinator Mark Duncanson notes: “The unique thing about the recent Youth Music Festivals (including the current Holiday Youth Music Festival) is how the young performers collaborate with one another. Jeff Zavattero (Festival Assistant Director) and I like to open the floor to youth voice. We are creating the show together, making decisions as a team with the young performers, often making changes up to the last minute. It is so much fun!”
For the Holiday production, Youth and Teen Performing Arts Program Assistant Jeff Zavattero heads up the “themes” coordination, mentoring the youth writers. New to the production this year is Andrew Mondello, serving as Musical Director. Mondello has been working with Director Mark Duncanson on other youth program projects for the last several years.
Duncanson went on to chat about previous Holiday Youth Music Festivals: “In the inaugural show in 2013, the youth performers decided to set the Holiday Youth Music Festival to the theme of a 1950’s Lawrence Welk style variety show, complete with four hostesses singing an opening number in formal dresses, a magician, and local vocalists and instrumentalists “stopping by” to perform and sip hot coco on stage. And last year, they took the Ebenezer Scrooge theme to a whole new level. This season, I am really excited to watch the young performers cooperatively develop a whole new theme around the Holiday Youth Music Festival.”
The Firehouse Arts Center is dedicated to inspiring passion through the arts. The center is comprised of the 227-seat Firehouse Theater, the 2000 square foot Harrington Gallery, classrooms and rehearsal space, the grand atrium lobby, and the famous interior glass bridge. With world-class performing and visual arts, exciting interactive programs for all ages, and a state-of-the-art venue which opened in 2010, we combine the sophistication of the culturally rich Bay Area arts landscape with the hospitality and intimacy of our own home town. The Firehouse Arts Center is located at 4444 Railroad Avenue in downtown Pleasanton. Media: Jane Onojafe, jonojafe@cityofpleasantonca.gov, or 925-931-4855
Holiday Festival Director Mark Duncanson is available for interviews: phone, in-person, and email. mduncanson@cityofpleasantonca.gov, or call him direct at 925-931-4828
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