DONATE

DONATE

Our Family & Friends
Christmas with fraser+KEL

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2026  7:30 PM

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2026  2:00 PM & 7:30 PM

BUY TICKETS

POPS SERIES

What to wear? Be comfortable. Dress in a way that works for you. If you feel like dressing up, do it and you won’t be the only one, we promise. If you prefer to be more casual you will fit right in as well.

Beverages served prior to concert and during intermission. You can pre-order your beverage before the concert.


Mobile phones are allowed to be on but must be set to silent.


We welcome you to clap when you like what you hear.

PORT SERIES SPONSORS

POPS SERIES SPONSOR

PERFORMANCE SPONSORS

VIS Orchestra

Our Family & Friends Christmas features internationally renowned husband and wife duo fraser+KEL for a heartfelt symphonic holiday celebration! Fraser Walters is best known as co-founder of Universal Music’s multi-platinum and JUNO-winning supergroup The Tenors, with whom he co-created five studio albums and performed in thousands of concerts and broadcasts worldwide. Kelly Elizabeth Levesque, who has had an international recording and performing profile since signing her first major-label record deal in her teens, has appeared as a soloist at iconic venues including Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House, The Kennedy Center, and Madison Square Garden with global legends such as Sting, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, and Michael Bolton. Blending soaring harmonies with lush orchestral arrangements.

GUEST CONDUCTOR: Herb Smith
GUEST ARTISTS: Fraser Walters and Kelly Elizabeth Levesque

POPS SERIES

Our Family & Friends
Christmas with
fraser+KEL

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2026 7:30 PM

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2026 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM

Our Family & Friends Christmas features internationally renowned husband and wife duo fraser+KEL for a heartfelt symphonic holiday celebration! Fraser Walters is best known as co-founder of Universal Music’s multi-platinum and JUNO-winning supergroup The Tenors, with whom he co-created five studio albums and performed in thousands of concerts and broadcasts worldwide. Kelly Elizabeth Levesque, who has had an international recording and performing profile since signing her first major-label record deal in her teens, has appeared as a soloist at iconic venues including Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House, The Kennedy Center, and Madison Square Garden with global legends such as Sting, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, and Michael Bolton. Blending soaring harmonies with lush orchestral arrangements.

GUEST CONDUCTOR: Herb Smith
GUEST ARTISTS: Fraser Walters and Kelly Elizabeth Levesque

What to wear? Be comfortable. Dress in a way that works for you. If you feel like dressing up, do it and you won’t be the only one, we promise. If you prefer to be more casual you will fit right in as well.

Beverages served prior to concert and during intermission. You can pre-order your beverage before the concert.

We welcome you to clap when you like what you hear.

Mobile phones are allowed to be on but must be set to silent.

PERFORMANCE SPONSORS

VIS Orchestra

Send Every Grade 4 Student to a VIS Concert
Help transform young lives through the power of music

Your donation can be the catalyst for transforming lives through the power of music.
Help us send every Grade 4 student to a VIS concert designed specifically for them.
The VIS Music Education program builds music appreciation and participation in
over 2,500 nine and  ten year old children each year.
Let’s welcome the symphony audiences of the future together!

DONATE

Click Here
Herb Smith
Conductor

Conductor Herb Smith is widely known in both the classical and jazz worlds as an exciting performer who inspires musicians and audiences wherever he goes. Whether he is performing, conducting, teaching, or composing, Herb’s expression of music draws from his multifaceted and dynamic musical experiences from around the world.

Herb has recent and upcoming appearances as a guest conductor with orchestras around the country, including the Indianapolis Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, No Name Pops at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Long Beach Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Springfield Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, Stockton Symphony, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Currently he directs the Eastman Youth Jazz Ensemble. He also guest conducts for All-State and All-County Bands, Orchestras, and Jazz Ensembles all across New York State. Herb recently conducted and curated a Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Brass performance of Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” at a Black Lives Matter rally and a concert honoring Harriet Tubman. This performance united the City of Rochester, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and neighborhood churches in honor of Tubman’s bicentennial celebration.

Voted “Best Instrumentalist” of Rochester 2022 by City Magazine, Herb currently holds the third trumpet position in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the principal trumpet position in the Gateways Festival Orchestra, which made its Carnegie Hall debut in April 2022. Herb also serves as principal trumpet in the Gateways Brass Collective, a nationally touring professional brass quintet sponsored by Conn-Selmer. Being a highly sought-after lead trumpeter has afforded Herb the opportunity to play with such notable musicians as Jeff Beck, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, the O’Jays, Johnny Mathis, and Doc Severinsen, to name but a few. He has been a frequent guest soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Rochester Philharmonic.

Herb’s Freedom Trio (composed of trumpet played through electronics, bass, and drums) can be seen in performances around the country. This funky, eclectic group, a frequent guest at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, offers its “idiosyncratic yet charming melodies” (City Magazine) in concerts and festivals around the world.

As a composer, Herb has been commissioned by brass ensembles, high school choirs, jazz ensembles, and trumpet ensembles in addition to writing for his jazz trio and the Gateways Brass Collective. Herb’s “The Twelve Tones of Christmas,” composed for trumpet, piano, and voice, premiered in Carnegie Hall in 2008. Tony Award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan commissioned Herb to write a ballet for his Children’s Ensemble. The resulting forty-minute, six-part work ranged across many styles, including reggae, classical, jazz, and funk.

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Herb is a trumpet instructor at the Eastman Community Music School. He also leads masterclasses and offers lectures on trumpet technique, endurance, and sound production. From universities to elementary schools, Herb is frequently invited to serve as a teacher, teaching artist, and clinician. He co-founded Herb’s City Trumpets, a program that mentors and teaches trumpet to Black students aged 8 to 17, in partnership with the Rochester City School District.

fraser+KEL
Fraser Walters and Kelly Elizabeth Levesque

Fraser Walters and Kelly Elizabeth Levesque are multi-platinum and award-winning artists, respectively, renowned worldwide for their vocal excellence, artistic versatility, dynamic songwriting, and magnetic live performances. With his roots in Canada, and hers in New York, both began performing at remarkably young ages—Kelly recording her first notes in the studio at just three years old with her musician father, and Fraser stepping into professional work at the age of eight in Vancouver, BC.

Fraser and Kelly’s combined story began in 2009 in Chicago, where they met as featured performers on the North American leg of the David Foster & Friends global tour. Led by legendary producer and songwriter David Foster, the acclaimed concert series brought together celebrated artists to perform his timeless music on some of the world’s great stages. When the tour started at the Rosemont Theatre on October 21, 2009, amid soaring arrangements and creative harmony, two kindred spirits connected on an occasion of artistic synergy that would change their lives forever.

Just nine months later—overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the bluffs of Rancho Palos Verdes, California— Fraser got down on one knee, presented a ring, and asked Kelly “will you spend the rest of your life with me?”. In an intimate and surprise moment, made unforgettable by her shocked and sweet reply, Kelly responded “Did you ask my dad?”. A year later, they were married in New York City, a celebration surrounded by friends and family in a soaring Chelsea penthouse that honored both their personal bond and shared artistic journey. As their (long-distance) relationship deepened, both continued to build extraordinary separate careers as recording and touring artists, meeting whenever and wherever their schedules would allow, and earning international renown for their talent, dedication, and creative prowess.

Kelly has appeared as a soloist at iconic venues globally including Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the Kennedy Center, Madison Square Garden, Budokan, and Staples Center. She has shared the stage as a featured artist with legendary names such as Sting, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Michael Bolton, Smokey Robinson, John Legend, and Patti LaBelle. Her work has been featured in major televised events including PBS’s Love Songs of Diane Warren, The Motown Sound: In Performance at The White House, and the Hallmark Channel’s 4th of July Celebration at The White House. She has earned two Top 5 Billboard Classical Crossover albums and her voice is heard across film soundtracks, national commercials, television themes, and radio campaigns.

Fraser is a JUNO-winning, multi-platinum recording artist best known as co-founder of Universal Music’s internationally acclaimed supergroup The Tenors, with whom he co-created five studio albums and performed in thousands of concerts and broadcasts worldwide. Select career highlights include five PBS headlining specials, appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Céline Dion, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee at Windsor Castle for ITV, the Primetime Emmy Awards “In Memoriam” segment, the XXI Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremonies, and the iconic Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting on NBC. His work spans genres and stages, from playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar in Australia at age 16, to originating a principal role in the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings stage adaptation, to a distinguished two-year tenure with the internationally celebrated and Grammy Award–winning American vocal ensemble Chanticleer. He has shared the stage and screen with artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Sir Elton John, Sarah McLachlan, Samuel L. Jackson, and Neil Young, among many others.

Now, for the first time in their remarkable careers, Fraser and Kelly have joined forces as a writing, production, and performing team, channeling their shared life experiences into bold new creative work. Alongside their three incredible daughters Hope, Lulu, and Jade, whom they proudly call their greatest creations, they have embraced and celebrated this season of family, reflection, and inspired collaboration. Among the projects they are eager to share is a new Christmas Album that is in pre-production, and an original dramatic musical with Tony Award–winning producers attached, marking the next chapter of their creative partnership.

A powerful force both individually and together, fraser+KEL will continue to inspire audiences worldwide through their extraordinary artistry, storytelling, and a deeply shared passion for music, family, and healing through song.