South Bend’s favorite holiday concert, Home for the Holidays, celebrates the magic of the season with Music Director Alastair Willis and the South Bend Symphony Orchestra for one day only! Come to the Morris Performing Arts Center on Saturday, December 14, at 2:00 p.m. OR 7:30 p.m. to enjoy the music and special guest appearances by UZIMA! Drum and Dance and Soprano Anne Slovin.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Maestro Alastair Willis and the South Bend Symphony Orchestra for their much-anticipated annual holiday concert Home for the Holidays!” Kelly Burgét, UZIMA!’s Artistic Director, tells us. “The South Bend Symphony has a steep and rich tradition and UZIMA! Drum and Dance is excited to be a part of that history. I believe this concert is also making history as we bring together the genres of classical music and African dance for the first time in our community. We’re looking forward to sharing this experience with the audience as we take the stage at the prestigious Morris Performing Arts Center and become part of its legacy. This concert is guaranteed to bring the Holiday spirit to our community as we celebrate the season of light and love together.”
Guest soloist Anne Slovin adds, “I’m excited that Christmas and the first night of Chanukah fall on the same day this year, which feels doubly joyful! I’m looking forward to being a part of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra’s holiday celebration, which brings joy to so many people.”
The South Bend Symphony Orchestra thanks Everwise Credit Union for their support of Home for the Holidays. Additionally, the Symphony acknowledges Jordan Lexus of Mishawaka as a distinguished Artistic Partner of the 2024-25 Season.
TICKETS start at $19 to $75.
ONLINE – www.morriscenter.org
PHONE – Morris Performing Arts Center Box Office 574-235-9190
(10 am – 4 pm Tuesday – Wednesday and Thursday & Friday 10 am – 5:30 pm)
IN-PERSON – Visit the Morris Box Office (211 N. Michigan St., South Bend) during the times listed above or two hours before any performance or stop by the Symphony Office (127 N. Michigan St., South Bend) between 10 am – 4 pm on Tuesday through Friday.
To VIEW the 2024-25 Season schedule, visit www.southbendsymphony.org
Dates, programs, and venues are subject to change.
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About the South Bend Symphony Orchestra
The South Bend Symphony inspires, entertains, and connects the community with the transformative power of orchestral music. Producing more than 20 mainstage programs each year and nearly 70 smaller ensemble concerts, the Symphony serves more than 29,000 attendees annually. As the region’s only professional orchestra, the Symphony is committed to fostering a robust, connected arts community in service to the greater Michiana region.
In addition to being recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and other state and local arts funding organizations, the South Bend Symphony Orchestra is the recipient of the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County’s Leighton Award for Nonprofit Excellence, which recognizes the best-run nonprofit organization in St. Joseph County, Indiana.
Learn more about the South Bend Symphony Orchestra at www.southbendsymphony.org.
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About Anne Slovin
Soprano Anne Slovin is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate applied voice lessons, as well as courses on voice science and vocal literature. She is also a candidate for the doctoral degree in voice at Indiana University, where she studied with Patricia Havranek and Julia Bentley, and, most recently, sang the title role in the world premiere of Shulamit Ran and Charles Kondek’s Anne Frank with IU Opera Theater.
An avid performer of new and recent opera, Anne created the role of Mica Segal in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s premiere of The Property, a klezmer opera with a score by Wlad Marhulets and libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann. She has also performed roles in Sumeida’s Song by Mohammed Fairouz and The Seduction of a Lady by Richard Wargo, as well as covering roles in The Grapes of Wrath by Ricky Ian Gordon and Hello Out There by Jack Beeson. At IU, Anne premiered the role of Brigitte in New Voices Opera’s production of Marilyn’s Room by Kyle Peter Rotolo. Anne also appeared Clara in the collegiate premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life with IU Opera Theater, a performance that was called “a delight” by Indiana Public Media. In fall 2018, she joined the Indianapolis Opera Resident Artist program, covering Musetta in La Bohème and premiering the role of Juliet in Star-Cross’d Lovers, a chamber opera by IU professor Don Freund.
Anne is equally at home in standard operatic repertoire, having made her American mainstage debut in 2014 as an Artist-in-Residence at Pensacola Opera. At Pensacola, she sang the roles of Frasquita in Carmen, Clorinda in La Cenerentola and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte as part of the Artist-in-Residence showcase. Anne’s roles in the Chicagoland area include Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, Marzelline in Fidelio, Aline in The Sorcerer and Gianetta in The Gondoliers. In Bloomington, she has performed the roles of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Bloomington Chamber Opera, and Micaëla in La Tragédie de Carmenwith Arden Opera. In January 2023, Anne will make her South Bend Lyric Opera debut as Hanna Glawari in Léhar’s The Merry Widow.
In demand as a choral and concert artist, Anne has sung frequently with Music of the Baroque, the Chicago Bach Project and the Chicago Symphony Chorus. She made her Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra debut in 2015 as the soprano soloist in Respighi’s Laud to the Nativity and Vivaldi’s Gloria, and at IU she has been a featured soloist in Britten’s Te Deum in C and Ives’s The Celestial Country. In February 2023, she will perform as soprano soloist in Brahms’ Requiem with the University of Notre Dame choral department. Anne is also a dynamic recitalist, having programmed works by composers ranging from Barbara Strozzi and Johannes Brahms to André Previn and Judith Cloud. In 2016, she premiered Myron Silberstein’s song cycle This Blue Dark, which she also assisted in developing with English poet Chloe Stopa-Hunt. She is currently developing recital programs of works by Jewish composers and in the Yiddish language.
Anne has distinguished herself on the competition circuit over the last decade. She is a previous recipient of a Farwell Trust Award from Chicago’s Musicians Club of Women and an international study grant from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Musicians, which allowed her to study voice at the Schola Cantorum in Paris for the 2011-2012 academic year. Anne won first prize in the FAVA Grand Concours de Chant, the Prix Leoš Jánácek in the Czech and Slovak International Vocal Competition, and second prize in the Harold Haugh Light Opera Competition. Anne has also been named Best Female Performer and Best Female Voice at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, UK, for her performances with the Savoynet PerformingGroup.
Recently, Anne has dipped her toe into the world of cabaret performance. In 2019, she debuted at New York City’s Don’t Tell Mamawith her performance of “Wholesome Content,” a curated cabaret about the joys and woes of teaching. In spring 2022 she transformed a basement classroom at Jacobs into a piano bar for “Does a Goat Have a Soul? and Other Questions from Jewish Women on Stage and Screen.” Anne was a 2022 participant in the St. Louis Cabaret Conference, where her mentors included Faith Prince, Jeff Harnar, Karen Mason, and Marilyn Maye, as well as pianists Alex Rybeck, David Pearl and Chris Denny.
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About UZIMA! Drum and Dance
UZIMA! Drum and Dance was founded locally in South Bend by Kelly Burgèt in 2012. The word “UZIMA!” was chosen from the Swahili language as a mantra for the organization, meaning a celebration of wholeness, health, and life. UZIMA! still considers this their central mission and foundation, seeking this for both members and audiences with whom they interact. Performing traditional West African dance, Afro-contemporary, song, and spoken word, UZIMA! always looks to leave their audience in a better place– filled with joy, peace, and a greater sense of the light that exists in all of us.
Kelly studied with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre where she received substantial training in a myriad of dance styles, taking particular interest in African. While looking for a way to invest her gifts in the South Bend community, she decided to create a space where people could come and experience the beautiful culture of the African diaspora.
Today, UZIMA! Drum and Dance is a growing and thriving performing arts company with expanding influence in the South Bend area. The company features a diverse collection of members from the community, from young to more mature, of all different races and backgrounds. This unification of the diverse is a victory which UZIMA! proudly champions, seeking to bring people of all backgrounds together through the arts. UZIMA! has performed at many community events, and prior to the onset of the pandemic was honored at Notre Dame’s Debartolo Performing Arts Center as the featured dance company for the 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2024 Presenting Series. UZIMA! was able to perform on the same stage as prestigious performers such as Itzhak Perlman, Patti Lupone, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, among others. Additionally, these performances were featured on WNIT’s “Live from Notre Dame” program, allowing them to be seen by the community at large.