Sharing the sounds of the season Pittsburgh Pops style

The tradition of Christmas music stretches back many centuries but finds fresh expression in every generation. The vast and varied repertoire that has accumulated over time touches us not only with music’s emotional and spiritual powers. It also revives warm family memories of childhood.

Daniel Meyer will conduct the Mendelssohn Choir and Pittsburgh Symphony Pops in nine performances of “Highmark Holiday Pops” from Dec. 13 to 22 at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall. Broadway star Ashley Brown is the featured soloist.

The Saturday matinee on Dec. 21 will be the symphony’s first Holiday Pops concert to be sensory friendly, adjusted for the needs of people on the autism spectrum.

Meyer has been leading Holiday Pops concerts for more than a dozen years, dating back to his years as a symphony resident conductor.

“I don’t think I understand Christmas without music — whether it’s sitting at my mom’s side plucking out tunes while she sang carols or putting on my father’s Perry Como albums or sitting under the tree watching all the beautiful color lights flicking against the ceiling,” he says.

Meyer, who is artistic director of the Westmoreland Symphony and music director of several other orchestras, and also director of orchestral activities at Duquesne University, looks forward to every opportunity to conduct Christmas music concerts.

“I love Holiday Pops because it’s a challenge,” he says. “Every year is a new challenge in several ways. One is satisfying this desire everyone has to hear songs they already know and love. Another is to inject some elements that might be unfamiliar but are certainly exciting and listenable and fun. The third is the intricate dance of mixing the elements together so that people can really get into the spirit of the holiday”

He says he’s also aware that Holiday Pops is the one time during the year that many people get to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony, and that “one of the world’s greatest orchestras is in Pittsburgh and is not to be forgotten.”

The concert will begin with two carols – “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” and “Angels We Have Heard on High” in Robert Shaw’s arrangements from the third suite of his “Merry Moods of Christmas.” Carols are sprinkled throughout the show, including the sing-along on the second hall. There’s nothing like singing carols with other people.

The program includes other traditional favorites, such as Leroy Anderson’s orchestral composition “Sleigh Ride,” George Frideric Handel’s “Hallelujah” Chorus from “Messiah” and Irving Berlin’s song “White Christmas.” Brown, who will sing solos and with the Mendelssohn Choir, will close the first half performing some of her favorite Christmas songs that are from more recent decades rather than older traditions ­— “All I Want for Christmas is You,” “Hard Candy Christmas,” Happy Christmas” and “Feliz Navidad.”

The Three Rivers Ringers, a bell choir, will add its distinctive timbre to several numbers, including “Christmas Eve Sarajevo,” which is an arrangement of “Carol of the Bells.”

Finally, special guest Christopher Sanders will play Santa. His musical numbers will include “Swingin’ Little Christmas Time” by Tony Guerrero, for which he’ll be joined by Attack Theatre dancers and a vocal trio from Point Park University.