The Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts has a full schedule of holiday performances for December featuring all its members, and capturing the many moods of Christmas.
On tap this December are:
Christmas Movies with live orchestra
“Christmas Movies at the Peristyle,” Saturday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. at the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle. The Toledo Symphony, conducted by Steven Jarvi, performs the live scores to favorite animated Christmas movies. Click for tickets.
After a night of heavy snowfall, a young boy wakes up to make a very large snowman. At the stroke of midnight, the snowman comes to life for a night of tale-spinning flight. In “Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas,” all of Mossy Bottom Farm is riled up when Shaun’s seasonal excitement turns to dismay after a farmhouse raid for bigger stockings leads to Timmy going missing. Can Shaun get his little cousin back and save Christmas?
Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in Rosary Cathedral
The Toledo Symphony will perform Handel’s “Messiah,” Sunday, Dec. 8 at 4 p.m. at Rosary Cathedral, 2535 Collingwood Blvd., Toledo. Alain Trudel will conduct the orchestra and chorus. Featured soloists are: Meridian Prall, mezzo-soprano, Amanda Powell, soprano, Brian Skoog, tenor, and Geoffrey Schellenberg, baritone. Click for tickets.
‘The Nutcracker’ continues record run
Toledo Ballet will stage “The Nutcracker” at The Stranahan Theater, Saturday Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday Dec. 15 at 2 p.m. Click for tickets.
The ballet’s artistic director Eric Otto brings his touch to Toledo Ballet’s annual production of the Tchaikovsky masterpiece The show the longest running production of The Nutcracker in North America and is one of the few performed with full orchestra.
The Toledo Symphony will be conducted by Alain Trudel. A Christmas Eve celebration turns into a high-stakes battle between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker Prince. Clara and her Prince travel to the land of the sweets to be enchanted by dances and offerings from around the world.
Vocalist comes home to help TJO jazz up Christmas
“A Very Jazzy Christmas,”Saturday, Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. at the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle features Toledo native April Varner, winner of the 2023 International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition, in an evening of holiday jazz favorites with the Toledo Jazz Orchestra. Led by guest conductor Andrew Bishop, the show offers toe-tapping arrangements of holiday classics. Click for tickets.
Symphony’s Neighborhood Concerts ends in Rossford
The symphony, conducted by Steven Jarvi, concludes its series of Neighborhood Concerts with Christmas in Rossford on Sunday, Dec. 22 at 4 p.m. at All Saints Catholic Church. Free.
