Event Calendar
Holiday Pops!
Saturday, December 17, 2022, 2:00 pm
Diane Wittry, conductor
Phoenix Best, vocalist
Community Chorus | Tom Dressler, director
— 1st Presbyterian Church, Allentown
— College Hill Presbyterian Church, Easton
— Members of the Allentown Symphony Chorus
Dancers from Charter Arts High School | Jennifer Weaver, director/choreographer
— Ariana Hernandez
— Sophia Marut
— Kathryn Rodger
Jameson Platte, cello
Parkland Chorale | Allison Lagan, director
Jarrod Yuskauskas, special guest
It’s Allentown’s newest holiday musical tradition. Your family and friends will thrill to the spectacle of the season. It’s a sparkling celebration of carols, classics, sing-alongs and more!
(And yes, Virginia, there will be a Santa Claus.)
PROGRAM
A Christmas Scherzo
Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Sleigh Ride
A Gospel Christmas
The Nutcracker Overture
Rejoice
A Charleston Christmas
We Three Kings
Oh Happy Day
— INTERMISSION —
Let's Have a Christmas Celebration
Winter Wonderland
Caroling, Caroling
Sheep May Safely Graze
Hanukah Fantasy
In the Bleak Midwiner/Still, Still, Still
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Ho, Ho, Ho
Jingle All the Way — Audience Sing-a long
Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Over the River and Through the Woods, Up on the Housetop, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad
Phoenix Best, Actress
Phoenix Best is a Broadway Performer born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Best attended DeSales University in Center Valley PA, where she received her degree in Musical Theatre. As a student she performed in many of the mainstage musicals and dance concerts, but she is most known for playing the lead role of Velma Kelly in the department's production of Chicago. During the summers following her sophomore, junior and senior year, Best was an acting intern for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Just months after graduation Best moved to New York City and landed her first Broadway show, the 2015 revival of The Color Purple, where she was a Swing/ASM. This production went on to receive Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Awards.
In the summer of 2017, she joined the Broadway company of Dear Evan Hansen as a vacation cover for the role of Alana Beck for two weeks. Just two months later, she booked the role of Eponine in the new North American Tour of Les Misérables. Best was on the tour for 5 months before getting the call to return to Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway to take over the role of Alana. She continued with the company for a little less than a year and a half, departing on May 5, 2019. Best rejoined the tour of Les Misérables in October of 2019 in the role of Eponine up until the pandemic shutdown in March of 2020.
Recently she has been seen in the filmed musical Estella Scrooge and lead the independent short film From Sea to Rising Sea. She appeared in the final episode of Love Life on HBOMax and worked on a new musical at ART titled Macbeth In Stride. Currently she is playing the lead role of Mary in the World Premier Musical AD 16.
