Holiday Pops 
December 5, 2025 | 8:00PM
December 6 & 7 | 3:00PM

Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Capathia Jenkins, Vocalist
Columbus Symphony Chorus
Stephen Caracciolo, chorus director
Columbus Children’s Choir
Jeanne Wohlgamuth, CCC artistic director

The Columbus Symphony brings magic to the Ohio Theatre in December, transforming it with a show of lights, festive music, heavenly voices, and seasonal cheer!  The Columbus Symphony Chorus, Columbus Children’s Choir and special guests join to present the most-loved holiday songs and carols!

Capathia Jenkins

The Brooklyn-born and raised singer/actor, Capathia Jenkins, premiered her new show, ICON: The Voices That Changed Music, with the Princeton Symphony, with subsequent performances with the Houston Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Anchorage Symphony, and several others.  She premiered her solo show, She’s Got Soul, with the Houston Symphony in October 2022, followed by performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Utah Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Philly Pops, among many others.

 Ms. Jenkins starred as ‘Medda’ in the hit Disney production of Newsies on Broadway. She made her Broadway debut in The Civil War, where she created the role of Harriet Jackson. She then starred in the Off-Broadway 2000 revival of Godspell, where she wowed audiences with her stirring rendition of ‘Turn Back, O Man’ which can still be heard on the original cast recording. She returned to Broadway in The Look of Love and was critically acclaimed for her performances of the Bacharach/David hits. Ms. Jenkins then created the roles of ‘The Washing Machine’ in Caroline, Or Change and ‘Frieda May’ in Martin Short-Fame Becomes Me where she sang ‘Stop the Show’ and brought the house down every night.  In 2007 she went back to Off-Broadway and starred in (mis) Understanding Mammy-The Hattie McDaniel Story for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. She was also seen in Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore.

     An active concert artist, Ms. Jenkins has appeared with numerous orchestras around the world including the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony (with Marvin Hamlisch), National Symphony, Cincinnati Pops (with John Morris Russell), Philly Pops, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and many others.  She was also a soloist with the Festival Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic multiple times.  In October 2025, Ms. Jenkins will travel to Bratislava to perform at the Concert Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic.   Ms. Jenkins had the great honor of performing in the ‘Broadway Ambassadors to Cuba’ concert as part of the Festival De Teatro De La Habana. She has performed at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops multiple times and also sang in a Tribute to Marvin Hamlisch at the Library of Congress.  

She is a founder and board member of Black Theatre United. 

Socia Media @capathianyc

Stephen Caracciolo  

Stephen Caracciolo is the Chorus Director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, preparing the CSO Chorus for appearances in the Masterworks concert series and conducting community performances of the CSO Chamber Choir. Dr. Caracciolo is a conductor recognized for his passionate artistry and creative leadership in interpreting an expansive range of the choral repertoire, including choral-orchestral works, Renaissance and Baroque motets, German-Romantic part songs, French chansons, the sacred literature of the English and Russian churches, opera choruses, American folk songs and spirituals, and works by living composers. 

For twelve years he was a professional choral bass at Washington National Cathedral where he also served as the cover conductor for masses, choral evenings, and special services. He has performed choral masterworks with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra, the American Symphony, and the orchestra of Washington National Cathedral with such renowned conductors as Robert Shaw, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Erich Kunzel, Michael McCarthy, and James Levine.

Known nationally as a composer and arranger, Caracciolo’s choral works are performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe. He is a composer with MorningStar Music Publishers, E.C. Schirmer, Kjos Music, and Roger Dean Publishing, and is active as a consultant for various educational, ecclesiastical, and professional organizations.

His publications—including commissions for the acclaimed professional vocal ensemble, Cantus—appear on numerous professional, collegiate, and cathedral repertoire lists, and may be heard on nationally distributed recordings as well as syndicated radio broadcasts including the well-known Sunday program, With Heart and Voice.

Dr. Caracciolo concurrently serves as Artistic Director of ProArteOHIO, Central Ohio’s premier professional vocal ensemble. Under his leadership, the ensemble consistently garners high praise for its beauty of tone, remarkable blend, and exceptional commitment to elegant text phrasing. Previous conducting posts include the Maryland Choral Society and choral ensembles at the University of Maryland-Baltimore, Roberts Wesleyan College, the Ohio University School of Music, and Denison University. Caracciolo holds a doctoral degree in conducting from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, a master’s degree in conducting from Westminster Choir College, and a bachelor’s degree in music education from the Capital University Conservatory of Music.

Jeanne Wohlgamuth 

Throughout her four-decade career, Jeanne Wohlgamuth has been an unwavering advocate for children’s music education of all ages. In 2012, Wohlgamuth was named Artistic Director of Columbus Children’s Choir and has since led the organization to extraordinary heights, including six national and international tours, eleven competition victories, and a performance with the renowned Vienna Boys’ Choir.

A lauded conductor and educator, Wohlgamuth received the Professor Veneta Vicheva Conductor’s Mastery Award from the XXVI Dobri Voinikov International Children and Youth Choral Gala in Shumen, Bulgaria (2021), the Best Conductor Award from the Rimini International Choral Competition, Rimini, Italy (2021), the Outstanding Music Educator Award from the Royale Music Competition (2023), and the National Teacher of the Year Award from the Organization of American Kodály Educators (2020). In June 2023, Wohlgamuth led her inaugural choral residency at Carnegie Hall and will return to Carnegie Hall in 2026 to conduct Mulholland’s Missa Romantica for treble choir with the New England Symphonic Orchestra.

During her tenure as the director of choirs and performing arts chair at Dublin Jerome High School, Wohlgamuth’s Class A middle school and AA high school choirs achieved an unparalleled record of twenty-four consecutive years of superior ratings in the main stage and sight-reading evaluations at the Ohio Music Educators Large Group Adjudicated Events.

Wohlgamuth is dedicated to elevating the field of choral education through service, mentorship, and hands-on experiences for children and educators. She serves as President of the Ohio Choral Directors Association and regularly shares her expertise as a guest clinician for events such as the Organization of American Kodály Educators National Women’s Concert Choir, the Indiana Elementary All-State Honor Choir, the Georgia All-State Middle School Treble Honor Choir, and various district high school, middle school, and elementary honor choirs.

Other honors and accolades include the Teacher of the Year Award, Dublin Jerome High School (2006), Teacher of the Year Award, Karrer Middle School (2003), Teacher of the Year Award, Wright Elementary (1994), and Teacher of the Year Award, Bowen Elementary School (1988). Wohlgamuth is a recipient of the distinguished Golden Shamrock Award for Educational Excellence, Dublin City Schools (2001), and the Community Champion Award, presented by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce (2008). In 2021, her contributions led to her induction into the Dublin Jerome High School Hall of Fame.

Columbus Symphony Chorus 

SOPRANO 
Susie Beecroft
Laura Byars
Andrea Dent
Katie DiPietro
Kathryn Ehle
Karissa Frische
Charlotte Geary
Cassie Howard
Makenna Koehl
Alexa Konstantinos
Miriam Matteson
Maureen O’Brien
Amy Adele Parker
Stephanie Pikovnik
Stephanie Rodriguez
Kristen Snyder
Chelsea Winebrener
Victoria Zanatian

ALTO 
Aubrey Bailey
Amy Bergandine
Deborah Forsblom
Savannah Gonsoulin
Lauren Grangaard
Kirby Johnson
Elizabeth Murphy
Elizabeth Pittman
Christina Rossi
Hannah Miller Rowlands
Heather Rudisill
Gretchen Rutz Leist
Jenna Shively
Katerina Warner
Peggy Wigglesworth

TENOR
Wade Barnes
Justin Burkholder
Michael Cochran
Daniel Davis
Geoffrey Gear
Aaron Lashley
Darius McBride
Adam Mesker
Matt Pittman
Richard Spires
Andrew Sutherland
Eric White
Michael Wigglesworth
Thom Wyatt
Jason Yoder
Aidan Young

BASS
Alexander Almeida
Matthew Barbour
Kevin Baum
Raymond Cho 
Jacob Conrad
Luis Danyel Falcon
Keith Frische
William Gehring
Eric Gibson
Andrew Grega
Kent Maynard
Robert Moreen
Kyle Norton
David Scott
Dominic Straquadine

DIRECTOR
Stephen Caracciolo

ACCOMPANIST
Casey Cook

BOARD CHAIR
William Gehring

CSO CHORUS COORDINATOR
Lauren Grangaard

Columbus Children's Choir, New World Singers

Emma Aring 
Ellie Armstrong-Phillips
Julia Balada-Guerau
Athina Becker
Erin Brown
Layke Burke
Martin Cabrera
Mariana Cabrera
Stephanie Chute
Rae Coe
Max Cooper
Joshua Dilgard
Keira Dively
Lilliana Donabauer
Aizik Gentile
Laure Haskins
Daniel Hernandez Duque
Ryan Hindman
Liam Hite
Christen Hoyte
Martha Jimenez
Kylie Johnson
Violet Kitchel
Grace Kleismit
Sylvia Laing
Hannah Lear
Bonnie Lowe
Isaac Lowe
Aashi Mathur
Jonathan Nicolette
Audrey Noble
Terra Page
Aarav Peter
Moriah Pockras
Varsha Rayapudi
Miriam Rule
Roshan Satiani
Colin Sauer
Aubrey Scaggs
Aiden Slisher
Miles Stover
Simon Wilcox
Jane Wootton
Ashley Zehnde