Washington, DC
When Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart was looking for a celebrity reader for its rendition of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” this year, he invited well-known music fan, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield.
Before a sold-out audience in the festively decorated Boston Symphony Hall on Dec. 5, Neal joined guest conductor Francisco Noya, guest artist Justin Hopkins and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus to narrate Clement Clarke Moore’s classic yuletide poem.
With the entire Boston Pops behind him providing musical accompaniment, the congressman gave a spirited rendition of the story of St. Nicholas that was well received by the crowd of more than 2,000 people.
Moore’s work, first published in 1822, was credited by University of Massachusetts history professor Stephen Nissenbaum in his 1998 book, “The Battle for Christmas,” with transforming a previously rowdy, outdoor holiday into a more benign, family celebration. Nissenbaum calls the work “the only poem that American children voluntarily memorize.”
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