2023 Christmas Classics with the BPO at CHS!
It was a wonderful night in a sold-out Scaccia Auditorium on Dec. 5, 2023 for The BPO at CHS.
The great Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra performed "Christmas Classics with the BPO" in an auditorium built 100 years ago for just this kind of fine arts experience.
Conducted by Fernanda Lastra, the BPO performed several holiday pieces and Christmas carols, including Carol of the Bells, selections from The Nutcracker, Feliz Navidad, Festive Sounds of Hannukah and Trish Trash Polka; the closing number was Sleigh Ride. They were welcomed by principal Tom Coppola '01.
The BPO, which played a concert for our community in spring 2023 during a school day (video below), called our auditorium its home for a time.
The orchestra performed here after the Elmwood Music Hall was demolished in 1938 and before Kleinhans Music Hall opened in 1940.
Special BPO concert at CHS in Spring 2023
We were honored to host the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on April 18, 2023 as the Scaccia Auditorium showed why it was built nearly 100 years ago: For beautiful musical performances.
Conductor Fernanda Lastra led the BPO in a wonderful set that began with Carl Nielsen's "Overture to Maskarade," heard in the video below.
The BPO actually called Scaccia Auditorium its home for a time – the orchestra performed at CHS after the Elmwood Music Hall was demolished in 1938 and before Kleinhans Music Hall opened in 1940.
The BPO also played selections from Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Gerardo Gardelin and William Grant Still. It also performed "The Dark Knight Rises" by Hans Zimmer and Ralph Ford, a sampling of Star Wars pieces by John Williams and closed with Leonard Bernstein's "Overture to West Side Story."
The BPO was originally scheduled to perform at CHS three years prior as part of our 150th anniversary celebration; that was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Three years in the making, 150 years of celebrating," Principal Tom Coppola '01 said at the close of the performance. "Thank you so much to the BPO for sharing your talent with us."
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