Enrico Lopez-Yañez leads the No Name Pops in “A Very Philly Christmas” in Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall last Friday.
In Saturday’s (12/2) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin reviews the holiday show of Philadelphia’s No Name Pops orchestra: “It’s not every day that you get a kickline of two singers and eight dancing Santas…. Most of the tunes at these concerts led by conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez are traditional Christmas carols and standards … The No Name Pops Choir and Gospel Choir of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas … kicked up the program’s verve several notches…. You don’t get much more Philly than Jason Kelce, whose ‘Santa’s Night’ got an orchestral version world premiere…. ‘Santa’s Night’ is a single by Kelce, a center for the Eagles … It’s a ballad in three-quarter time … Clever of Lopez-Yañez, who did the orchestration, to assign a quick spotlight moment to the sax near the end—an ode to Kelce, who plays the sax. Lopez-Yañez doubled as emcee for the evening, and he’s plenty likable. The newly named principal pops conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra … deftly handled his most challenging assignment: conducting a girl and boy from the audience who were invited to come up and play sleigh bells and a percussion whip in Leroy Anderson’s ‘Sleigh Ride.’ ”
