The Deerfield Singers Anastasia Cameron Balmer Director
WILLIAMS Home AloneTM
There will be one intermission.
This concert is part of the CSO at the Movies series, which is generously sponsored by Megan and Steve Shebik.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.
HOME ALONE
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Presents A JOHN HUGHES Production A CHRIS COLUMBUS Film
HOME ALONE
MACAULAY CULKIN
JOE PESCI
DANIEL STERN
JOHN HEARD and CATHERINE O’HARA
Music by JOHN WILLIAMS
Film Editor RAJA GOSNELL
Production Designer JOHN MUTO
Director of Photography JULIO MACAT
Executive Producers
MARK LEVINSON & SCOTT ROSENFELT and TARQUIN GOTCH
Written and Produced by JOHN HUGHES
Directed by CHRIS COLUMBUS
Soundtrack Album Available on CBS Records, Cassettes, and Compact Discs
This program is a presentation of the complete film Home Alone with a live performance of the film’s entire score, including music played by the orchestra during the end credits. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the credits.
Ever since Home Alone appeared, it has held a unique place in the affections of a very broad public. Director Chris Columbus brought a uniquely fresh and innocent approach to this delightful story, and the film has deservedly become a perennial at holiday time.
I took great pleasure in composing the score for the film, and I am especially delighted that the magnificent Chicago Symphony Orchestra has agreed to perform the music in a live presentation of the movie.
I know I speak for everyone connected with the making of the film in saying that we are greatly honored by this event . . . and I hope that the audience will experience the renewal of joy that the film brings with it, each and every year.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Home Alone in Concert produced by Film Concerts Live!, a joint venture of IMG Artists, LLC and The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc.
Producers: Steven A. Linder and Jamie Richardson
Director of Operations: Rob Stogsdill
Production Manager: Sophie Greaves
Production Assistant: Katherine Miron
Worldwide Representation: IMG Artists, LLC
Technical Director: Mike Runice
Music Composed by John Williams
Music Preparation: Jo Ann Kane Music Service
Film Preparation for Concert Performance: Ramiro Belgardt
Technical Consultant: Laura Gibson
Sound Remixing for Concert Performance: Chace Audio by Deluxe
The score for Home Alone has been adapted for live concert performance.
With special thanks to: Twentieth Century Fox, Chris Columbus, David Newman, John Kulback, Julian Levin, Mark Graham, and the musicians and staff of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.
John Williams
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is grateful to Megan and Steve Shebik for their support of the CSO at the Movies series.
PROFILES
John Williams Composer
In a career spanning more than six decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage, and he remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. He has composed the music and served as music director for more than one hundred films, including all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Superman, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Memoirs of a Geisha, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist, Home Alone, and The Book Thief. His over fifty-year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films, including Schindler’s List, E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, The BFG, The Post, and The Fabelmans. His contributions to television music include scores for more than 200 television films for the groundbreaking, early anthology series Alcoa Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, Chrysler Theatre, and Playhouse 90, as well as themes for NBC Nightly News (“The Mission”), NBC’s Meet the Press, and the PBS arts showcase Great Performances. He also composed themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer
Olympic Games and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He has received five Academy Awards and fifty-four Oscar nominations, making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most nominated person in the history of the Oscars. He has received seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), twenty-six Grammys, four Golden Globes, five Emmys, and numerous gold and platinum records. In 2003 he received the Olympic Order (the IOC’s highest honor) for his contributions to the Olympic movement. He received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in December 2004. In 2009 Mr. Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the U.S. government. In 2016 he received the 44th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute—the first time in its history that this honor was bestowed upon a composer. In 2020 he received Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts as well as the gold medal from the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society in the UK, and in 2022 he was awarded an honorary knighthood of the British Empire as one of the final awards approved by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
In January 1980 Mr. Williams was named nineteenth music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. He currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor, which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993 after fourteen highly successful seasons. He
also holds the title of artist-in-residence at Tanglewood. Mr. Williams has composed numerous works for the concert stage, among them two symphonies, and concertos commissioned by several of the world’s leading orchestras, including a cello concerto for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a bassoon concerto for the New York Philharmonic, a trumpet concerto for the Cleveland Orchestra, and a horn concerto for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2009 the Boston Symphony premiered his concerto for harp and orchestra entitled On Willows and Birches, and in the same year, Mr. Williams composed and arranged “Air and Simple Gifts” especially for the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama.
In 2021 John Williams premiered his second violin concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood along with soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom he composed the work. Most recently, he composed a new concerto for pianist Emanuel Ax, who premiered the work with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in July 2025.
Nicholas Buc Conductor
Nicholas Buc is a conductor with a dynamic international career spanning the symphonic, film, and cross-genre worlds. Recognized for his narrative clarity, cinematic precision, and collaborative
leadership on the podium, he appears regularly with major orchestras across North America, Australia, Europe, and Asia.
A leading figure in live film concerts, Buc has conducted the world premieres of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, and Field of Dreams. He is widely sought after for large-scale productions that fuse orchestral performance with storytelling and visual media.
Alongside his conducting work, Buc is an award-winning composer and arranger. His original live animation concert, Daughter of the Inner Stars, made its North American premiere with the Vancouver Symphony in 2025, and he has scored projects including The Apocalypse According to Mad Max, a French–Australian documentary on filmmaker George Miller. In 2026 his new arrangement of the Australian Open theme, commissioned by Tennis Australia and recorded with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, will premiere at the tournament.
His cross-genre work includes collaborations with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Chris Botti, Ben Folds, and the Cat Empire. He also has served as conductor and arranger for Tina Arena on six Australian tours and has created arrangements for Diana Ross, Passenger, Birds of Tokyo, Lake Street Dive, Missy Higgins, and the Whitlams. His TV credits include Junior MasterChef Australia (2020),
five seasons of The Voice Australia, and the 2021 Australian Football League Grand Final.
Buc studied composition at the University of Melbourne, receiving the inaugural Fellowship of Australian Composers Award, and later completed a master’s degree in scoring for film and multimedia at New York University, where he was honored with the Elmer Bernstein Award for Film Scoring.
Nicholas Buc’s 2025–26 season brings debut appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and the Phoenix Symphony, along with return engagements with the San Francisco Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo-based New Japan Philharmonic, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and all the major Australian symphony orchestras.
The Deerfield Singers
The Deerfield Singers is a highly dedicated ensemble of talented students from across the North Shore area. Under the direction of Anastasia Cameron Balmer, this select choir meets independently to achieve a professional standard of performance. Through commitment, collaboration, and a shared passion for music, the Deerfield Singers provides a unique and enriching experience, fostering excellence and artistry in its student musicians.
Anastasia Cameron Balmer Chorus Director
Anastasia Cameron Balmer discovered her love for music at an early age while studying violin and piano in her home city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Her
passions for collaboration and community are the driving forces behind her work as a singer, educator, conductor, producer, and pianist, inspiring those around her to connect and to create. Balmer currently directs four curricular choirs, including one auditioned show choir, at Deerfield High School on the North Shore of Chicago. She has led students to showcase their talents, conducting and accompanying ensembles across the country and around the globe, including at Disney World and in Nashville, Boston, New York, Prague, Budapest, and Vienna. Under Balmer’s direction, the Deerfield High School Choral Program was invited by Emmy Award–winning conductor and composer Gary Fry to perform in We Are Here, a concert in recognition of the eighty-fifth anniversary of Kristallnacht at the Salt Shed in Chicago with Grammy- and Emmy-winning Music Director Lee Musiker. In June 2024 Balmer prepared her students to perform Abel Selaocoe’s Four Spirits with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois.
In 2012 Balmer was chosen to direct Voices Rising, a sixty-member, premier youth choral ensemble at Midwest Young Artists in Highwood, Illinois. In addition to presenting musically diverse festival concerts, she prepared the group for the Chicago Symphony Chorus’s creative team in collaboration
with conductor Duain Wolfe and Gary Fry for the Orchestra’s annual Welcome, Yule! performances.
Anastasia Cameron Balmer continues to sing as a professional member of the soprano section of the Chicago Symphony Chorus since 2010.
The Deerfield Singers
Anastasia Cameron Balmer Director
Cory Angel-Reece
Brady Aufmann
Billie Baer
Mason Benjamin
Lilah Black
Allegra Cinquegrani
Olivia Cole
Adalie Galanopolous
Lily Generes
Meri Harutyunyan
Claire Holt
Etta Kramer
Eva Krasner
Claire Lahl
Adrienne Lewis
Rhea Madhavan
Aedan McGahan
Angela Meehan
Hayden Meyers
Abby Miller
Piper Minogue
Cosette Morris
Josie Mutnick
Elias Nosek
Abigail O’Connor
Eve Petrovic
Laila Pocasangre
Adeline Roemer
Brandon Schaps
Liev Wieselman Schulman
Caroline Tye
Adam Tynkov
Maddy Wentz
Francesca Villar
Hojin Yang
Sophie Zardetto
Zosia Zarnecki
REHEARSAL PIANIST
Roger Bingaman
REFRESHMENTS AT SYMPHONY CENTER
You can order drinks and snacks before the performance or during intermission at various bars located throughout Symphony Center, including the Bass Bar in the Rotunda and most of the lobby spaces in Orchestra Hall.
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra— consistently hailed as one of the world’s best—marks its 135th season in 2025–26. The ensemble’s history began in 1889, when Theodore Thomas, the leading conductor in America and a recognized music pioneer, was invited by Chicago businessman Charles Norman Fay to establish a symphony orchestra. Thomas’s aim to build a permanent orchestra of the highest quality was realized at the first concerts in October 1891 in the Auditorium Theatre. Thomas served as music director until his death in January 1905, just three weeks after the dedication of Orchestra Hall, the Orchestra’s permanent home designed by Daniel Burnham.
Frederick Stock, recruited by Thomas to the viola section in 1895, became assistant conductor in 1899 and succeeded the Orchestra’s founder. His tenure lasted thirty-seven years, from 1905 to 1942—the longest of the Orchestra’s music directors. Stock founded the Civic Orchestra of Chicago— the first training orchestra in the U.S. affiliated with a major orchestra—in 1919, established youth auditions, organized the first subscription concerts especially for children, and began a series of popular concerts.
Three conductors headed the Orchestra during the following decade: Désiré Defauw was music director from 1943 to 1947, Artur Rodzinski in 1947–48, and Rafael Kubelík from 1950 to 1953. The next ten years belonged to Fritz Reiner, whose recordings with the CSO are still considered hallmarks. Reiner invited Margaret Hillis to form the Chicago Symphony Chorus in 1957. For five seasons from 1963 to 1968, Jean Martinon held the position of music director.
Sir Georg Solti, the Orchestra’s eighth music director, served from 1969 until 1991. His arrival launched one of the most successful musical partnerships of our time. The CSO made its first overseas tour to Europe in 1971 under his direction and released numerous award-winning recordings. Beginning in 1991, Solti held the title of music director laureate and returned to conduct the Orchestra each season until his death in September 1997.
Daniel Barenboim became ninth music director in 1991, a position he held until 2006. His tenure was distinguished by the opening of Symphony Center in 1997, appearances with the Orchestra in the dual role of pianist and conductor, and twenty-one international tours. Appointed by Barenboim in 1994 as the Chorus’s second director, Duain Wolfe served until his retirement in 2022.
In 2010, Riccardo Muti became the Orchestra’s tenth music director. During his tenure, the Orchestra deepened its engagement with the Chicago community, nurtured its legacy while supporting a new generation of musicians and composers, and collaborated with visionary artists. In September 2023, Muti became music director emeritus for life.
In April 2024, Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä was announced as the Orchestra’s eleventh music director and will begin an initial five-year tenure as Zell Music Director in September 2027. In July 2025, Donald Palumbo became the third director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Carlo Maria Giulini was named the Orchestra’s first principal guest conductor in 1969, serving until 1972; Claudio Abbado held the position from 1982 to 1985. Pierre Boulez was appointed as principal guest conductor in 1995 and was named Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus in 2006, a position he held until his death in January 2016. From 2006 to 2010, Bernard Haitink was the Orchestra’s first principal conductor.
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is the CSO’s Artist-in-Residence for the 2025–26 season.
The Orchestra first performed at Ravinia Park in 1905 and appeared frequently through August 1931, after which the park was closed for most of the Great Depression. In August 1936, the Orchestra helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival, and it has been in residence nearly every summer since.
Since 1916, recording has been a significant part of the Orchestra’s activities. Recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus— including recent releases on CSO Resound, the Orchestra’s recording label launched in 2007—have earned sixty-five Grammy awards from the Recording Academy.
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Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä Zell Music Director Designate
Joyce DiDonato Artist-in-Residence
Riccardo Muti Music Director Emeritus for Life
MEMBERS OF THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
VIOLINS
Robert Chen Concertmaster
Stephanie Jeong
David Taylor
So Young Bae
Cornelius Chiu
Kozue Funakoshi
Russell Hershow
Matous Michal
Simon Michal
Gabriela Lara
Sando Shia
Minyoung Baik
Yuka Kadota
Youngji Kim
Baird Dodge
Lei Hou
Hermine Gagné
Mihaela Ionescu
Bernardo Arias
Polina Borisova
Ying Chai
Troy Gardner
Kiju Joh
Ariel Lee
Michele Lekas
Yin Shen
VIOLAS
Teng Li
Youming Chen
Sunghee Choi
Wei-Ting Kuo
Danny Lai
Weijing Michal
Max Raimi
Roger Chase
Carol Cook
Jennifer Strom
CELLOS
Kenneth Olsen
Richard Hirschl
Olivia Jakyoung Huh
Katinka Kleijn
Ji-Ye Kim
Paula Kosower
Eran Meir
Judy Stone
BASSES
Daniel Carson
Ian Hallas
Robert Kassinger
Andrew Sommer
Isaac Polinsky
Olivia Reyes
FLUTES
John Thorne
Hillary Horton
Alyce Johnson
OBOES
Lora Schaefer
Anne Bach
Scott Hostetler
CLARINETS
John Bruce Yeh
Teresa Reilly
David Tuttle
BASSOONS
Vincent Karamanov
Hanna Sterba
Karl Rasza
HORNS
James Smelser
Katy Meffert
Oto Carrillo
David Griffin
TRUMPETS
Esteban Batallán
John Hagstrom
Tage Larsen
TROMBONES
Timothy Higgina
Reed Capshaw
Charles Vernon
TUBA
Gene Pokorny
TIMPANI
Vadim Karpinos
PERCUSSION
Cynthia Yeh
Patricia Dash
Eric Millstein
James Ross
HARP
Allegra Lilly
KEYBOARDS
Patrick Godon
Kelly Estes
LIBRARIAN
Mark Swanson
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
John Deverman Director
Anne MacQuarrie Manager, CSO Auditions and Orchestra Personnel
