UWindsor faculty and alumni will take up their batons alongside maestro Robert Franz during the Windsor Symphony Orchestra’s holiday pops concert, this weekend at the Capitol Theatre.

Music professor Bruce Kotowich will lead the WSO Chorus, education faculty member Danielle Sirek will direct the Windsor-Essex Youth Choir, and alumna Erin Armstrong Dickau (BMus 2007) will direct Music Moves Kids in song with the orchestra.

The program will feature an adaptation of Helaine Becker’s book A Porcupine in a Pine Tree: A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas, set to the traditional carol with images of Werner Zimmermann’s illustrations projected on stage. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Two of the three performances are already sold out; there are still tickets for 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16.

The orchestra will collect donations of non-perishable food items for the Windsor Essex Food Bank Association, and invites patrons to arrive early and enjoy a warm beverage as the lobby fills with carolers and the sounds of brass quintet.

The Capitol Theatre is located at 121 University Ave. West; buy tickets from its box office, by phoning 519-973–1238, ext. 2, or online at www.windsorsymphony.com.