Friday, December 11, 2025
7:30 pm

Christmases Past is a nostalgic holiday journey, blending warmth, wonder, and a touch of the unexpected. Coleridge-Taylor’s Christmas Overture and Prokofiev’s spirited Troika evoke festive cheer, while Scriabin’s Piano Concerto, featuring Sophia Chou, adds shimmering lyricism. Schoenberg’s Weihnachtsmusik offers a rarer voice of the season, and Al Call narrates The Night Before Christmas. Music by Respighi and our own Barry Ulman round out this richly colored celebration.

Pre-Concert Chat - You're invited to arrive a little early to join Maestro Wheatley and guest artist, Sophia Chou, for an intimate pre-concert chat. Theater doors open at 6:40 pm for general seating, with the chat beginning at 6:45 pm. When the chat concludes, attendees will leave the theater and re-enter with their ticket to take their reserved seats for the concert.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Christmas Overture

Alexander Scriabin
Piano Concerto, Op. 20

Philip Lane
The Night Before Christmas
Al Call, narrator

Ottorino Respighi
Adoration of the Magi

Sergei Prokofiev
Troika

Barry Ulman
Celtic Fantasia

Arnold Schoenberg, arr. Wheatley
Weihnachtsmusik

Bob Cerulli, arranger
Christmas Sing-Along

Total Runtime: 1 hour, 45 minutes

ARTIST BIO

Sophia Chou (Yi-Hui Chou), piano

Sophia Chou, born and raised in Taiwan, began studying piano at age five, later refining her artistry under Professor Chien-Ying Yang. Throughout her youth, she earned accolades in Taiwan’s music scene, excelling in solo, choral, and chamber music. In 2022, she moved to the U.S. to pursue a Master’s in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Now based in Seattle as a research scientist specializing in AI, she continues to blend her analytical work with a deep passion for music. Sophia has collaborated with the Skagit Symphony and performed alongside soloists such as Noémie Raymond. As a dedicated collaborative pianist with the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle, she regularly performs and connects with audiences through recitals, sharing her love of classical music.

NARRATOR

Al Call

Al Call, our narrator this evening for The Night Before Christmas, admits freely that he has no musical talent. He is, however, very much a fan of Skagit Symphony.

Having retired from military service and then subsequently from PepsiCo, he and his wife Barbara moved in 2000 from the Seattle area to a new home on the hills to the east of Conway. They soon discovered Skagit Symphony and began attending concerts. Barbara joined the Education Committee in 2014 and served until shortly before her passing in 2019. Al became a member of the Skagit Symphony Board of Directors and was its president during the COVID years. He continues to be an active volunteer for symphony events.

Al recalls his connection with The Night Before Christmas: In the early 1940s, while his father was deployed to Europe during World War II, his mother rented an old farmhouse in Maryland. He remembers fondly his grandmother’s visit one year at Christmas and her reading that poem to him and his sister.

In addition to being a member of Skagit Symphony’sBoard, Al was a certified Skagit County Master Gardener for 14 years, serving on the Foundation board and was president for one term. He now tends to his own plot of land. He relates that his two sons once asked when he should move to a smaller place. His reply was that it would be appropriate when the blackberries covered the front door. At last report, the nearest blackberry was several hundred yards away!