Big band for the holidays

December 11, 2003|by ANDREA ROWLAND

Big band music fans can get their fill with a swingin' holiday celebration with the Skyline City Band at The Maryland Theatre in downtown Hagerstown.

Emcee and conductor Yugo Ikach will lead the two-hour Big Band Christmas Spectacular - a musical variety-type show that will include traditional Christmas tunes with big band arrangements, swing dancing, vocal solos and ensemble numbers.

The show starts at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12.

"If you like big band music, this is the show for you," says Gary Latshaw, promoter for the Pittsburgh-based Skyline City Band. "It's all big band music with a bit of an orchestral sound."

National recording artist Deanna Dawn Denning will headline a lineup of performers, including Kelly DeFade, Amy Vogel, Melonie Vos, Jeremy Franz, Joe Cannito and Scott Ness, Latshaw says. Candy Hollabaugh and Kristen Womack will perform swing and modern dances. The band will include five saxophones, three trombones, three trumpets, drums, a piano, bass, harp and synthesized string section, Latshaw adds.

Ikach, a frequent performer of opera and musical theater, will get audience members involved in the show. Ikach has performed with the Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Natchez Opera Festival, West Virginia University Opera Theater, Wheeling Symphony, C.W. Post Opera and Lake Chautauqua Opera. He also has made appearances in venues ranging from casinos to parks as a big band emcee for the past decade. Ikach earned his master's degree from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.

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