Gile Series: Dan & Claudia Zanes Holiday Sing-A-Long

This unique holiday show is a musical celebration inspired by the Christmas sing-alongs that Grammy Award winner Dan Zanes and jazz vocalist / music therapist Claudia Zanes experienced every year while growing up in New Hampshire. That was then, and this is now - the 21st century version of these legendary parties includes Christmas classics, of course, and there’s so much more.

The Holiday Sing Along songbook - printed and distributed to the audience members – features seasonal numbers from a variety of traditions and locations. Songs from Puerto Rico, Korea, Wales, Tunisia, Haiti, and North America are represented alongside reimagined versions of the ones we all know and love such as “Let it Snow,” “Silent
Night,” and “Deck the Halls.” In addition to Christmas, Hannukah, Korean New Year, Kwanzaa, and Winter Solstice are also celebrated.

For this show, Smithsonian Folkways recording artists Dan + Claudia have taken their electric folk sound to a fresh place with rising Gospel star, Tyree Isaiah Austin. The result is a festive blend of three vocals with guitar, saxophone, trombone, harmonica, flute, percussion, mandolin and beatbox to artfully bring the intimate feeling of the living
room to the big stage.

This trio embodies the social spirit of the season and the legacy of intergenerational communal music making. It’s in these songs that we can renew our connections to each other and imagine the best of life’s possibilities for the year ahead.

The Holiday Sing Along is designed for people of all ages and is an ideal sensory friendly presentation.