Dawn Ward sings with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in 2009 Holiday Pops

The Blue River Big Band’s vocalist, Dawn Ward, sang in the Fort Wayne Philharmonic’s 2009 Holiday Pops concert series.  The holiday pops is truly a cherished local tradition and the Fort Wayne Philharonic works very hard to perform the concert in many locations in and around the Fort Wayne area (a total of 9 concerts in 2009).  Dawn sang a total of ten songs in each performance.  Most of the songs were in a fun pop style (hence the name of the concert) with a particular emphasis on Christmas music written after 1950, such as “White Christmas” and music from “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”, although Dawn also sang more classical pieces such as Schubert’s beautiful rendition of “Ave Maria”.  Of course there were also several excellent pieces that the orchestra performed without vocals – one of my favorites was “March of the Toys”.  Pictures were not allowed during performances but here’s a shot of Dawn on stage after a show.