Home Alone in Symphony & a Hollywood Christmas — What USO's 60-Piece Film-Score Night Sounds Like
Home Alone in Symphony & a Hollywood Christmas is United Soloists Orchestra's own 60-piece Christmas production: a full live performance of John Williams' Home Alone score, followed by a big-band set of Hollywood Christmas standards. It plays Stadtcasino Basel on 1 December 2026 and Bern's Casino on 13 December 2026, tickets on sale now.
What's on the programme for Home Alone in Symphony & a Hollywood Christmas?
The concert runs 80 minutes with an interval, in two distinct halves. Part One is John Williams' Home Alone score played start to finish by the full orchestra — eleven cues, from The House to the tender Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Part Two, A Hollywood Christmas, turns the same 60 musicians into a live big band.
Part One: the Home Alone score, start to finish
This is the original John Williams soundtrack, not a medley of highlights:
- The House
- Holiday Flight
- Star of Bethlehem
- Man of the House
- Scammed by a Kindergartner
- Carol of the Bells
- Setting the Trap
- The Attack on the House
- Follow That Kid!
- Mom Returns and Finale
- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Part Two: A Hollywood Christmas
The orchestra then shifts register into pop, jazz and big-band Christmas standards:
- It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year — Andy Williams
- It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas — Michael Bublé
- I'll Be Home for Christmas — Michael Bublé
- White Christmas — Frank Sinatra
- Winter Wonderland — Tony Bennett
- Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree — Brenda Lee
- Jingle Bell Rock — Bobby Helms
- Santa Claus Is Coming to Town — Frank Sinatra
- Let It Snow! — Michael Bublé
- Last Christmas — Wham!
- All I Want for Christmas Is You — Mariah Carey
- Feliz Navidad — José Feliciano
Both halves come from USO's own official Spotify setlist for the show — listen through before you go:
What's it like to hear a 60-piece orchestra play film music live?
Sixty musicians is one of USO's largest stage configurations — full strings, brass, percussion and choir-scale weight behind Williams' celesta and sleigh-bell colours, then a horn section punchy enough to swing Sinatra. It's the gap between hearing Carol of the Bells on a speaker and feeling it fill a hall around you in symphony.
Original photos from USO's own archive
The images throughout this page are from USO's own production archive for Home Alone in Symphony & Hollywood Christmas (credit: AK Photography / Andrey Klimontov) — not stock photography, but the actual stage and musicians who play this show.
Who is Home Alone in Symphony for, and where can you see it?
It's built as a concert for the whole family — a familiar film score and Christmas songs everyone already hums, played live rather than explained. It also works as a Christmas-gala reference for corporate and event bookers weighing a private orchestral evening of their own.
- Basel — Stadtcasino, Konzertgasse 1, Tuesday 1 December 2026, 19:30–22:30
- Bern — Casino, Casinoplatz 1, Sunday 13 December 2026, 17:00–19:00
Both shows run 80 minutes with an interval, tickets from CHF 25, and both venues currently show a 4.7-star average from 24 Google reviews of USO's concerts. See the full calendar of upcoming USO concerts for other cities and dates.
Why does a film score work as a live symphonic show?
A film score is written to carry emotion without dialogue — which is exactly what makes it work as a stand-alone concert. Arranging it for the stage (deciding where the orchestra breathes, where the brass swells, where a jazz combo takes over for the Hollywood set) is the job of USO's Music Director and conductor, Arseniy Shkaptsov.
“Confident and fluid conducting baton… great mastery of the difficult repertoire… a wonderful ensemble… in balanced dialogue.”
— Cremona Sera
Shkaptsov trained at Moscow's Central Music School before studying bassoon at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano and conducting at Zurich's ZHdK, under mentors including Paavo and Neeme Järvi, Daniele Gatti and Vladimir Fedoseev, and has collaborated with musicians from Kurt Masur to Ennio Morricone. He arranges every USO show himself — see how that process works for pop repertoire in how he arranges songs for a full orchestra. Home Alone in Symphony is his companion piece to USO's other 2026 seasonal hub, The Grand Romance Gala.
Frequently asked questions
Is Home Alone in Symphony & a Hollywood Christmas family-friendly?
Yes. It's programmed as a concert for the whole family, built around music most people already know from films and the radio, at a normal evening concert length with an interval.
Is the full Home Alone score played, or just highlights?
The full eleven-cue sequence from John Williams' Home Alone soundtrack is played start to finish in Part One, followed by twelve Hollywood Christmas standards in Part Two — not a medley or a shortened highlights reel.
How long is the concert, and is there an interval?
80 minutes of music across two parts, with an interval between the Home Alone score and the Hollywood Christmas set.
Where and when can I see Home Alone in Symphony?
Basel's Stadtcasino on 1 December 2026 and Bern's Casino on 13 December 2026, both from CHF 25.