MSO Musicians Share Their Holiday Playlists
David Lewellen
PUBLISHED
Tagged Under: 2025.26 Season, MSO Musicians, Pops, Vocalist
Amid the annual rush of December concerts, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra musicians hear plenty of holiday tunes when they’re performing at the Bradley Symphony Center or other local venues. But, like audiences, most of them also have their own playlists to get them in the spirit of the season on their own time.
Piccolo player Jenny Bouton’s household gets a double dose of holiday music on the job — her husband, jazz bassist Clay Schaub, is currently doing a run of 67 performances of music from A Charlie Brown Christmas. (“Not a typo,” she adds.) His group, The Commercialists, returned for the third year to perform two gigs in Allen-Bradley Hall as part of their busy season around Milwaukee.
For herself, Bouton says, “Like most people, my favorite holiday music includes artists and songs that I loved as a child, and newer albums introduced by family and friends.” Her fond childhood memories include the Barbra Streisand and Mariah Carey Christmas albums. “Who can argue with the vocal fireworks and glam that these two offer? Not me!” she says.
Now, her family loves the Christmas Collection albums from the late smooth jazz label GRP, and she adds, “My husband’s family is all about Kenny & Dolly Christmas. Let’s just say it’s a tradition at this point.”
A non-Christmas album that she still seeks out at this time of year is the 1961 Blue Note album by Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderly. The song “Happy Talk” reminds her of John Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things,” which she rightfully calls “holiday-adjacent.”
Violist Nathan Hackett, who does not have to perform Vince Guaraldi all through December, enjoys relaxing with the classic jazz soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. “That’s something that really gets me in the Christmas spirit,” he says, “especially the sweetly simple and poignant ‘Christmas Time is Here.’”
Aside from that, Hackett also likes jazzy arrangements of mostly secular Christmas tunes. “Probably my favorite Christmas album is Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas, including a very hip and cool rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” he said. Another holiday requirement for him is Mel Torme doing “The Christmas Song,” also known as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.” “His voice is so smooth and soulful, no wonder they called him the Velvet Fog,” Hackett says.
Bass trombonist John Thevenet, however, tends toward the traditional side — at least when he controls the remote. He and his wife enjoy “sacred classics like ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Angels We Have Heard on High,’” he says, “and standards like ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ and of course the Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé Christmas albums.” Some of his favorite classical albums feature singers Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle, Luciano Pavarotti, and The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
But, he adds, “We have a speaker in our Christmas tree that we play our music through, and my daughter would prefer to hear K-pop groups. She definitely gets in the spirit of Christmas but maybe not the music.”
Associate Concertmaster Ilana Setapen can relate. “The only song I ever seek out and listen to is Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You,’” she says. “I get my fill of holiday music between work, shopping, and kids. If any other song is on the radio, I switch the station immediately.”
But every musician would probably agree on Bouton’s final observation. “However, if you like to celebrate, LIVE music is the way to remember old favorites and discover new ones,” she says. “Hope to see you all out and about enjoying the season soon!”
