A Virtuoso Christmas

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Works on the program:

• Adolphe Adam: O Holy Night
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt, BWV 151
• Johann Sebastian Bach and Charles Gounod: Ave Maria
• Peter Cornelius: Christbaum (Christmas Tree), from Weihnachtslieder, Op. 8
• Franz Gruber: Silent Night
• George Frideric Handel: Hallelujah, from Messiah
• Gustav Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter
• Mykola Leontovych and Peter J. Wilhousky: Carol of the Bells
• Felix Mendelssohn: Vaterland, in deinen Gauen, from Festgesang (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing)
• Arnold Schoenberg: Weihnachtsmusik (Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Excerpts from The Nutcracker, Op. 71
• Traditional Catalan: Fum, Fum, Fum
• Traditional English: The Holly and the Ivy

Singers: Nina Garguilo, soprano; Holly Sheppard, alto; Thomas Strawser, tenor; Thommy Long, baritone.

Instrumentalists: Jeannette Hirasawa Moore, flute; Mary Simon, oboe; Maria Flurry, timpani; Andrew Campbell, piano; Katherine McLin, violin; Bryn Cannon, viola; Wesley Skinner, cello.

Pianist Andrew Campbell is a versatile collaborator whose work spans chamber music, opera, and orchestral performance. He has appeared internationally across Europe, South Africa, and Asia, and throughout the United States. Campbell has directed summer music programs in Germany, Luxembourg, and North Carolina, and serves as Faculty Artist at Rocky Ridge Music in Colorado. His recordings include Cantando with bassoonist Albie Micklich, and recent highlights include serving as principal pianist for the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra in summer 2024. As a vocal coach, he has worked on the music staffs of Washington National Opera and San Diego Opera, collaborating with conductors Andre Previn and Heinz Fricke and working with composer Carlisle Floyd. Campbell studied with Martin Katz at the University of Michigan and is Professor of Music and Director of Collaborative Piano at Arizona State University.

Soprano Nina Garguilo, originally from Memphis, Tennessee, is Coordinator of Vocal Studies and Choirs at Glendale Community College in Arizona. She has performed and taught in the Phoenix area since 2011, and in 2012 began singing with the Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale, sharing in the 2015 Grammy Award for Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil. In 2026 she sang Donna Israelita in Lidarti’s oratorio Esther for the Arizona Bach Festival, and in 2025 she was soprano soloist in the complete Messiah with Arizona Musicfest. Her roles include Despina (Così fan tutte), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Maria (West Side Story), and the title role in Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank at the Mittelsächsisches Theater in Freiberg, Germany. Nina is in her ninth season with Helios: A Modern Renaissance and earned her Doctorate in Music from Arizona State University in 2017.

Holly Sheppard has been singing professionally in the Phoenix area for over two decades. She is in her 20th season with the Grammy® Award-winning Phoenix Chorale, contributing to numerous live performances across the valley and several recording projects. Holly is also a member of the early music ensemble Helios: A Modern Renaissance which focuses on illuminating early vocal music for contemporary audiences. As a versatile soloist, Holly appears regularly in concert series and operatic productions, including frequent appearances in concert with Phoenix Opera. Recent highlights include performing as the mezzo-soprano soloist in the Arizona Bach Festival’s Messiah (2025) and Dvořák’s rarely performed Stabat Mater at St. Barnabas. Her stage credits include Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito at the Trentino Music Festival in Italy (2019) and covering Mercédès in Arizona Opera’s Carmen (2022). Alongside her vocal career, Holly has worked as a 3D and motion graphics artist in the video game and slot machine industries. She lives in Mesa with her husband, George, and their birds, Pico and Olive, where they enjoy exploring the outdoors.

Tenor Thomas Strawser, originally from the small town of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, enjoys a full and diverse career as a performing artist in both the music and theatre communities here in Arizona. His professional choral experience includes The Philadelphia Singers during the organization’s tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Manhattan Chorale, a choral residency at St. Alban’s Cathedral in England, Art Renaissance Initiative, Canto Vivo, Sonoran Desert Chorale, Arizona Bach Festival, the Grammy-Nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra, and the Grammy-Award Winning Phoenix Chorale (6 seasons) including their album Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil, which received the 58th Grammy’s “Best Choral Performance” award. Tommy was with Childsplay Theatre as both a company actor and music director for local and national tours for 10 seasons. He acts with other Valley organizations including Arizona Opera, Arizona Broadway Theatre, The Phoenix Theatre Company, and Showtune Productions. Tommy currently serves as Music Director for Empowered Theater and Arts, an organization that provides theatre training and performance training for adults with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities and as Director of Music Ministries at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Tempe. He is also an adjunct voice professor at Mesa Community College. Tommy holds a Master of Music in Opera/Musical Theatre Performance from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Thommy Long is a classically trained baritone specializing in crossover singing. A native of Mesa, AZ and a proud NAU Lumberjack, he received his Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan in May of 2025. Thommy has performed many roles, including Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet) and Old Superintendent in Mayo Buckner (Tom Cipullo), Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Mozart), Father in Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck), Uncle in Elizabeth Cree (Puts), Mars in Orphée aux Enfers (Offenbach), and Betto di Signa in Gianni Schicchi (Puccini). In the spring, Thommy will be performing with Arizona Opera in the MainStage productions and perform the role Loco Coyote in The Coyotes and The Rabbits by Héctor Armienta. Thommy is so excited to be back in AZ and to sing with the Arizona Philharmonic.