HOMETOWN HOLIDAY POPS
Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm
Sunday, December 14, 2025 at 2:30 pm
Friday, December 19, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, December 20, 2025 at 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm
Sunday, December 21, 2025 at 2:30 pm
ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL
Ryan Tani, conductor
LaKisha Jones, soprano
Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble
Jana Larson, artistic director
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
Timothy Benson, assistant director
TRADITIONAL/arr. Don Sebesky
A Christmas Scherzo
Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella Here We Come A-wassailing
The Holly and The Ivy
I Saw Three Ships
O Come, All Ye Faithful
O Tannenbaum
TRADITIONAL/arr. Randol Alan Bass
Joy to the World
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
FELIX BERNARD AND RICHARD BERNHARD SMITH/arr. Cy Payne
Winter Wonderland
LaKisha Jones, soprano
WALTER AFANASIEFF AND MARIAH CAREY/arr. Tedd Firth
All I Want for Christmas is You
LaKisha Jones, soprano
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY/arr. Jeff Tyzik
Nutcracker Mini Jazz Suite
I. Dance of the Sugar Plums
III. Swing Dance á la Russe
GUSTAV HOLST
Christmas Day
TRADITIONAL/arr. John A. Behnke
Il est né [“He Is Born”]
TRADITIONAL/arr. Mack Wilberg
Four Christmas Carols
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble
III. Away in a Manger
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
BUDDY GREENE AND MARK LOWRY/arr. Randall Craig Fleischer
Mary, Did You Know?
INTERMISSION
LaKisha Jones, soprano
RANDOL ALAN BASS
Gloria
TRADITIONAL/arr. Lucas Richman
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
Hanukkah Festival Overture
TRADITIONAL/arr. Arnold Sherman
Bell Carol Fantasy
STEVEN AMUNDSON
Glories Ring
Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble
Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble
JOHN FREDERICK COOTS AND HAVEN GILLESPIE/arr. Bill Holcombe
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
LaKisha Jones, soprano
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
Continued on page 44
Guest Artist Biographies
TIMOTHY BENSON
Timothy Benson has been the assistant director of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus since 1994 and had prepared the chorus for several of its previous Holiday Pops concerts. He has served as director of music and organist at several churches since playing his first mass at age 10. A Milwaukee native, he began playing the piano at the age of five before taking up pipe organ studies. His former teachers include S. Theophane Hytrek, Christopher Herrick, and Peter le Huray.
Graduate studies in music took Benson to England, where he studied musical composition at Cambridge University. His teachers included Paul Patterson and Robin Holloway, and he undertook private study in Wales with William Mathias. A summer session in Croydon at the Royal School of Church Music included further studies in organ with Peter Hurford and Stephen Cleobury, as well as vocal pedagogy and choral conducting with Philip Ledger and George Guest. That summer saw Benson as the guest organist in a performance of J. S. Bach’s Magnificat for Her Majesty, the Queen Mother.
Upon returning to the U.S., he joined the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, then under the directorship of its founder, Margaret Hawkins, who asked him to pursue yet further graduate studies with her at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. While there, he studied choral conducting with Hawkins, orchestral conducting with Daniel Forlano, and vocal pedagogy with Signe Quale.
Benson enjoys the life of working with the wonderful singers of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, bringing the soul-enriching beauty of music to the wider community, providing great organ music and choral direction to churches in the area, and maintaining a small but thriving number of both organ and voice students.
LAKISHA JONES
Best known to millions of TV viewers as a top four finalist during the 2007 season of “American Idol,” LaKisha Jones is ready to reclaim center stage in music, theater, and television.
Having worked with hit-making songwriters and producers including Tony Nicholas (Patti LaBelle, Luther Vandross), Ro & Sauce (Brandy, NeYo) and Greg Curtis (Keyshia Cole, Yolanda Adams), Jones’s album So Glad I’m Me featured a spirited mix of R&B and soul. A few noteworthy songs included the single “Same Song,” penned by award-winning songwriter Dianne Warren, Whitney Houston’s “You Give Good Love,” the gospel song “Just As I Am,” and Jones’s soaring ballad to her daughter, “Beautiful Girl.”
Her drive and motivation date back to her childhood in Flint, Michigan. Raised by her mother and grandmother, Jones was exposed to music by legendary singers such as Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Patti LaBelle, with her grandmother urging the young girl to “let your voice shine,” thereby prompting Jones to sing in church choirs and music programs. Joining various choral groups and a cappella choruses throughout high school, Jones entered and won the top prize at Flint’s local talent contest, The Super Show, in 1997.
Jones then went to New York to audition for American Idol and segued from Idol to the Broadway stage for The Color Purple, where she played Sophia, for which she alternated with R&B icon Chaka Khan, who became her mentor. Jones participated in Khan’s 35th anniversary tour. Following her
Guest Artist Biographies
Broadway stint, Jones provided vocal coaching on MTV’s reality competition Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods, a show designed to find and hone Broadway’s next star.
A frequent soloist with orchestras around the world, Jones has performed as a guest soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Utah Symphony and Opera, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Windham Chamber Singers, Grand Rapids Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Battle Creek Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, Oregon Symphony, Long Bay Symphony Orchestra, and the International Music Festival Český Krumlov in the Czech Republic, among many others.
MILWAUKEE HANDBELL ENSEMBLE
The Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble is an auditioned community handbell ensemble of 14 ringers who play on 73 handbells and 73 hand chimes under the direction of Jana Larson. Over the past 23 years, the MHE has gained wide popularity in the Milwaukee community and beyond. They are known for their astonishing memorized performances, for premiering new arrangements of popular music, and for serving as the recording choir for American Guild of English Handbell Ringers (AGEHR) Publishing. They have been guest performers with Midwest Vocal Express, Bel Canto Chorus, Present Music, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus. The MHE has performed numerous times with the MSO at Christmas time under conductors Doc Severinsen, Stuart Chafetz, Jeff Tyzik, Andreas Delfs, and Ryan Tani. In December 2023, the MHE performed in the halftime show for the Milwaukee Bucks.
The MHE has also expanded their reach by touring and performing throughout the Midwest. The group was a featured performer at the Area 7 Handbell Festival in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 2016 and at the National Seminar for the Handbell Musicians of America in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2018.
In May of 2013, the MHE became a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Their mission is “to further the art of handbell ringing by educating, inspiring, and informing others of the art form” by showcasing advanced handbell repertoire while serving as a musical resource for the Milwaukee metropolitan area and beyond.
The MHE has recorded two CDs: An American Sampler and An MHE Christmas Celebration
2025.26 SEASON
KEN-DAVID MASUR
Music Director
Polly and Bill Van Dyke Music Director Chair
EDO DE WAART
Music Director Laureate
BYRON STRIPLING
Principal Pops Conductor
Stein Family Foundation Principal Pops Conductor Chair
RYAN TANI
Associate Conductor
CHERYL FRAZES HILL
Chorus Director
Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair
TIMOTHY J. BENSON
Assistant Chorus Director
FIRST VIOLINS
Jinwoo Lee, Concertmaster, Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair
Ilana Setapen, First Associate Concertmaster, Thora M. Vervoren First Associate Concertmaster Chair
Jeanyi Kim, Associate Concertmaster
Alexander Ayers
Autumn Chodorowski
Yuka Kadota
Elliot Lee
Dylana Leung
Kyung Ah Oh
Lijia Phang
Vinícius Sant’Ana**
Yuanhui Fiona Zheng
SECOND VIOLINS
Jennifer Startt, Principal, Andrea and Woodrow Leung Principal Second Violin Chair
Ji-Yeon Lee, Assistant Principal (2nd chair)
Hyewon Kim, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd chair)
Heejeon Ahn
Lisa Johnson Fuller
Clay Hancock
Paul Hauer
Sheena Lan**
Janis Sakai**
Yiran Yao
VIOLAS
Victor de Almeida, Principal, Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair
Samantha Rodriguez, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair), Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Assistant Principal Viola Chair
Alejandro Duque, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd chair)
Elizabeth Breslin
Georgi Dimitrov
Nathan Hackett
Michael Lieberman**
Erin H. Pipal
CELLOS
Susan Babini, Principal, Dorothea C. Mayer Principal Cello Chair
Shinae Ra, Assistant Principal (2nd chair)
Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus
Madeleine Kabat
Peter Szczepanek
Peter J. Thomas
Adrien Zitoun
BASSES
Principal, Donald B. Abert Principal Bass Chair
Andrew Raciti, Acting Principal
Nash Tomey, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair)
Brittany Conrad Broner McCoy
Paris Myers
HARP
Julia Coronelli, Principal, Walter Schroeder Principal Harp Chair
FLUTES
Sonora Slocum, Principal, Margaret and Roy Butter Principal Flute Chair
Heather Zinninger, Assistant Principal
Jennifer Bouton Schaub
PICCOLO
Jennifer Bouton Schaub
OBOES
Katherine Young Steele, Principal, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra League Principal Oboe Chair
Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal
Margaret Butler
ENGLISH HORN
Margaret Butler, Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to John Martin
CLARINETS
Todd Levy, Principal, Franklyn Esenberg Principal Clarinet Chair
Jay Shankar, Assistant Principal, Donald and Ruth P. Taylor Assistant Principal Clarinet Chair
Besnik Abrashi
E-FLAT CLARINET
Jay Shankar
BASS CLARINET
Besnik Abrashi
BASSOONS
Catherine Van Handel, Principal, Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family
Principal Bassoon Chair
Rudi Heinrich, Assistant Principal
Matthew Melillo
CONTRABASSOON
Matthew Melillo
HORNS
Matthew Annin, Principal, Krause Family Principal
French Horn Chair
Krystof Pipal, Associate Principal
Dietrich Hemann, Andy Nunemaker French Horn Chair
Darcy Hamlin
Dawson Hartman
TRUMPETS
Matthew Ernst, Principal, Walter L. Robb Family Principal Trumpet Chair
David Cohen, Associate Principal, Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal Trumpet Chair
Tim McCarthy, Fred Fuller Trumpet Chair
TROMBONES
Megumi Kanda, Principal, Marjorie Tiefenthaler Principal Trombone Chair
Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal
BASS TROMBONE
John Thevenet, Richard M. Kimball
Bass Trombone Chair
TUBA
Robyn Black, Principal, John and Judith Simonitsch Tuba Chair
TIMPANI
Dean Borghesani, Principal
Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal
PERCUSSION
Robert Klieger, Principal
Chris Riggs
PIANO
Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair
PERSONNEL
Antonio Padilla Denis, Director of Orchestra Personnel
Paris Myers, Assistant Manager of Orchestra Personnel
LIBRARIANS
Paul Beck, Principal Librarian, James E. Van Ess Principal Librarian Chair
Matthew Geise, Assistant Librarian & Media Archivist
PRODUCTION
Tristan Wallace, Production Manager/Live Audio
Lisa Sottile, Production Stage Manager
* Leave of Absence 2025.26 Season
** Acting member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra 2025.26 Season
