Phil Keaggy to join orchestra for holiday concert

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra will be joined by multi-Dove Award winner Phil Keaggy in its annual holiday concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at Powers Auditorium. The evening will feature gospel, Christian rock and traditional holiday music.

Tickets are on sale now at the DeYor box office, by phone at 330-744-0264 and at youngstownsymphony.com.

The concert will also feature the Singers Together Choir, under the direction of Timothy Mattern, who is the worship and music pastor at North Mar Church in Warren.

The evening will include several selections from Keaggy’s catalog of music, including “Village Bells,” “What Child Is This,” “A Christmas Suite” and “Coventry Carol”; choral selections “Arise and Shine,” “Joy to the World,” “Go Tell It on the Mountain”: and orchestral favorites “Sleigh Ride,” “White Christmas” and selections from “The Nutcracker.”

Keaggy is a Youngstown native who rose to fame in the 1970s with his progressive rock band Glass Harp. One of the most admired guitarists working today, his career has spanned more than 40 years and includes more than 60 solo albums, eight releases with Glass Harp, and numerous duets and trio albums.

For three years in a row, Keaggy was voted one of the top finger style guitarists by Guitar Player magazine.

He won his first Dove Award in 1988 for his Christian pop album “The Wind and the Wheat.” His second Dove Award came in 1992 for the Celtic-influenced “Beyond Nature.”

Each year from 1998 to 2000, Keaggy dominated the Instrumental Record category of the Dove Awards, winning for “Invention,” “Acoustic Sketches,” “Majesty and Wonder” and most recently, “Lights of Madrid.”

The YSO and music director-conductor Randall Craig Fleischer will continue the Stained Glass concert series at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Cyril and Methodius Church, 252 E. Wood St. The program will feature music by Aaron Copland, John Williams, Scott Joplin, Mozart and Bach. Admission is free.