An American Christmas: From Roots to Rhapsody

The Friends of Franklin Park Arts Center present a holiday music concert featuring master concert pianist Thomas Pandolfi. The concert blends American Roots music, songs from American theater and American Christmas classics. Lively pieces from composers like Scott Joplin, Leonard Bernstein, and Marvin Hamlisch begin the program, classics from Irving Berlin and Leroy Anderson set the holiday mood and George Gershwin pieces are the exclamation point that uplifts your spirit. The holiday music sits naturally inside the American story here - Berlin, Leroy Anderson and Vince Guaraldi are part of the same tradition as Gershwin - so it enriches the program rather than interrupting it.

Thomas Pandolfi is celebrated for performances that combine electrifying virtuosity, poetic sensitivity, and charismatic stage presence. A Steinway Artist, he has established himself as one of America’s distinguished concert pianists, performing to acclaim at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kiev Opera House, Bucharest’s Romanian Athenaeum, and London’s Cadogan Hall.

Refreshments provided at intermission and included in ticket fee.