MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is setting the holiday mood with their Holiday Pops concert happening at the beautiful Bradley Symphony Center December 14-19. Their special guest conductor, the legendary Byron Stripling, sat down with TMJ4's Andrea Williams.
"Welcome to Milwaukee! Joy to be here with you. Wow, you bring so much to this Holiday Pops and I am excited to hear about everything that you're cooking up. Because when we talk about cooking, you're bringing a lot of different genres of music, mixing it up, and giving up some gumbo so to speak. This is musical gumbo," said Stripling. "We've got all the old songs that remind you of the holiday spirit. What child is this? Then we'll go Jingle Bells, the kids will love that. It's really a family production. And of course, there's the old gospel that we do, go tell it on the mountain, over the hills, and everywhere. We put that in there, we got everything, for everybody on this one. Love it, even bringing in a chorus. We got a full choir behind us."
As an actor, singer, conductor, and trumpet virtuoso, Byron Stripling has entertained audiences all over the globe. He returns to MSO for the second season after performing Uptown Nights with the orchestra last spring.
"To sit together in a concert hall and we get to share and experience listening to all this great holiday music," said Stripling. "It really does speak to the universal language of music and even just sharing in other cultures, and I think that's a great example of what really Christmas and the holiday season is about. Absolutely."
Broadway singer Mamie Parris will join Stripling as well as one of the world's greatest pianists.
"If you remember the great Count Basie, he was a great piano player. He was one of the greatest band leaders in the world. And when he passed away, the guy I'm going to have play for us the next few days is named Bobby Floyd. He took over Count Basie's choir, in addition to that, he also played with the great Dr. John who was a great New Orleans musician, and one of his peak things he did when he was young is Ray Charles hired him to play the Hammond B three organ which sits behind me over there. He's going to light this place on fire. Not supposed to say fire in a theater. It's going to be lit!"
Andrea Williams said, "You too have rubbed elbows with the greats, if I'm correct. Tony Bennett, the late Tony Bennett, Whitney Houston, Dizzy Gillespie. Oh good friend. Talk about what it's like to have that opportunity."
Stripling shared, "So I was obsessed with music. I actually went looking for these people. So with regard to Dizzy Gillespie, I met him a few times and we developed a relationship and then I ended up touring with his big band as we toured all over Europe. I got with Count Basie's band after that. People like Aretha Franklin. What I did for her was contract musicians when I lived in New York City."
From Carnegie Hall to the Lincoln Center, Bryon Stripling has quite the resume and we are so privileged to have him grace the stage at the Bradley Symphony Center for the next five days.
Get tickets for MSO Holiday Pops here.
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