“It begins with a fanfare, continues with orchestral music and then, a procession of red-clad singers up a golden spiral staircase to become a sort of tree … while elegant symbols of the season are projected behind them,” writes Lyn Dowling in Monday’s (12/20) Florida Today. “Stirring, respectful and classic, to those who know and love it, the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays Candlelight Processional simply is ‘Candlelight,’ in good part the product of musicians from the Brevard Symphony Orchestra and music director Christopher Confessore, one of the Candlelight Orchestra’s four conductors…. The program … started Nov. 26 and continues through Dec. 30…. Lora MacPherson, BSO’s principal oboe player, is there, as are Tina Apelgren, its principal flute [and] the BSO’s concertmaster, Lisa Ferrigno, [who] has served in that position at Candlelight since 1997.… Confessore has conducted around the complex for years…. It is not the same Candlelight Processional it once was, probably to the disappointment of hundreds of young choristers….. COVID-19 put a stop to that. Now, about 175 Walt Disney World cast members comprise the choir…. ‘Some of our musicians… schedule everything else so they can be here. They look forward to … that Christmas tradition,’ said Confessore.”
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