Joy to the World (Night #1)

Bob Thompson’s Joy to the World holiday jazz concert is back! This year, the series will take place at the historic Capitol Theater at 123 Summers St. on Friday, Dec. 11 and Saturday, Dec. 12 at 8 pm.

Joy to the World has delighted audiences with new and classic holiday favorites for over thirty years, and returns this year with Bob Thompson, his all-star band (Timothy Courts on drums, Ryan Kennedy on guitar, and John Inghram on bass), special guest vocalist Lena Seikaly, and trumpeter James Moore.

Early-Bird Tickets on sale Friday, Nov. 6 at 10am: $30
General Admission Tickets on sale Saturday, Nov. 28 at 10am: $35
Day of Show Tickets (Dec. 11 & 12): $40

West Virginia Public Broadcasting presents this joyful night of live music, produced by the team that brings you Mountain Stage, with support from the WV Lottery and United Methodist Foundation of WV.

A fixture on the D.C. jazz scene for over 15 years, vocalist and DC area-native Lena Seikaly is already making her mark in national and international jazz circles as a revivalist of traditional jazz vocals, as well as an innovator in contemporary vocal jazz styles. She was one of eleven semi-finalists for the prestigious 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition in L.A., is an alum of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program in DC, the Jazz Aspen Snowmass program directed by Christian McBride, and the Strathmore Artist-in-Residence program in Maryland. Both as a bandleader and featured artist, Lena has headlined at Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai (China), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Strathmore Music Center, Blues Alley, the Hamilton, West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage, Sidney Harman Hall, various Smithsonian venues and DC’s famed Westminster Church, as well as the Elkhart Jazz Festival (Elkhart, IN), Mel Bay Jazz Festival (St. Louis, MO), Chestertown Jazz Festival (Chestertown, MD), DC Jazz Festival (Washington, DC), and Center City Jazz Festival (Philadelphia, PA). She has performed alongside Byron Stripling, Christian McBride, Sean Jones, Cyrus Chestnut, Norman Simmons, Walter Blanding, Michael Feinstein, Duduka da Fonseca, and various big bands including the USAF Airmen of Note, U.S. Army Blues, Columbus Jazz Orchestra, Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Capitol Bones Big Band, Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra and the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra.
Lena has released four albums under her name between 2009 and 2018, all of which were released at Blues Alley. Her music is played regularly on DC’s jazz station WPFW 89.3, and “A Little Closer” was featured on Washington DC’s NPR station, WAMU 88.5 shortly after its release.
As an avid educator and workshop instructor, she has taught privately and led regular workshops on jazz vocals at the Strathmore Music Center, served as the jazz vocal instructor at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts during 2008-09, and currently teaches privately in Washington, DC. Lena is also a classically-trained operatic mezzo-soprano, having studied at the University of Maryland School of Music under the instruction of François Loup. She was the first-place winner of the National Society of Arts and Letters’ 2008 DC chapter opera competition, and continued to win fifth place at the national competition in Bloomington, IN. She is very active in the DC area as a professional classical mezzo-soprano, and regularly performs as a soloist alongside the city's top orchestras and choirs, having been featured in works by Handel, Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Durufle, Vaughn Williams, Barber and Bernstein, as well as 20th century and early sacred music. In April 2023, she was the mezzo-soprano soloist for the world premier of "The Unknown Sea" by David Conte, a commissioned work featuring the Washington Master Chorale and Orchestra. As an arranger, Lena had the unique privilege of being commissioned to arrange a suite of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s music for a 16-piece version of the New Orchestra of Washington, which premiered in 2012.
A proud Palestinian American, Lena has also been involved in many Arabic fusion projects both in the U.S. and abroad — in summer of 2015, she toured in Palestine (West Bank) and Israel as the featured vocalist with Al-Manara, a European-Palestinian ensemble performing original music based on the life of its Palestinian composer and founder, Ramzi Aburedwan.​

Dr. James Moore, President of West Virginia Wesleyan College, served as Director of Jazz Ensembles and instructor of trumpet at Wesleyan from 2006 to 2017. From 2011 to 2017, he served as the chairperson of the Department of Music at Wesleyan and has worked to build one of the most vibrant collegiate jazz programs in the region.

Dr. Moore is an active member of the Pittsburgh jazz community where he is a member of the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra and has been a member of RH Factor—the Roger Humphries quintet. He is a member of the Dwayne Dolphin Fo’tet. He has performed with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, the Bob Mintzer Big Band, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Ahmad Jamal, Sheryl Bailey, Tim Warfield, and the Lars Halle Jazz Orchestra. Moore appeared on Bob Mintzer’s GRAMMY nominated album For the Moment, released on the MCG Jazz label in 2012. He also appears on Mintzer’s joint album with the critically acclaimed New York Voices, Meeting of Minds (Live), also on MCG Jazz. In 2015, Moore appeared alongside NEA Jazz Master Phil Woods and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in a reprisal of the famous Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown with strings recordings.

Moore is also an active clinician, having worked with many high school honors jazz ensembles throughout Pennsylvania and Western Maryland. He has presented master classes at countless high schools and colleges throughout the nation. He is also a member of the Artist Faculty of the National Trumpet Competition, as well as serving on the research review board of the International Trumpet Guild. His articles on jazz trumpet pedagogy have been published by the Australian and International Trumpet Guilds.

Moore studied trumpet with Bonnie Miltenberger, Neil Stalnaker, John Swana, and Tim Hagans. He holds an MM in Jazz Studies from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and is the first recipient of the PhD in Jazz Studies from the University of Pittsburgh where his advisor was Dr. Nathan T. Davis—founder of the original Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra.

Internationally known jazz pianist, composer, and arranger Bob Thompson (born December 12, 1942 in Jamaica, Queens, New York) is the house pianist and a featured performer on National Public Radio’s syndicated Mountain Stage program, which is broadcast live from the West Virginia Culture Center Theater in Charleston.

Thompson grew up in New York City, but came to West Virginia in the 1960s to study music at West Virginia State College (now University), and thereafter decided to stay.

Since the 1970s, Thompson and his bands have recorded and released multiple CDs, and toured nationally and internationally, performing gigs in Europe, Africa and South America. Throughout the 1980s Thompson released a series of widely acclaimed solo albums, first through his own label, Rainbow Records, and later on Capitol’s Intima jazz label. His most recent release is on Blue Canoe Records.

Thompson is co-producer and host of the annual “Joy to The World” holiday jazz show that airs on public radio stations across the nation, and is heard internationally on Voice of America.

When not performing on Mountain Stage, touring, or educating, Thompson continues to perform in Charleston and the tri-state area.