Line keeps busy during holidays

The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for pianist Lorie Line.

With her Pop Chamber Orchestra, Line brings her show to thousands of people in large and small cities across the country. And after a five-year break, Line is finally returning to Salt Lake City.

Her show plays in the Jeanne Wagner Theatre in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center on Saturday. And she couldn't be happier about returning to the Beehive State. "Five years is too long," she said by phone from her home outside Minneapolis. "I'm really excited about coming back."

Line said this year's Christmas show will be bigger and better than any holiday concert she's done in 16 years. "This year for sure is the best ever. That's what we've been hearing from our avid fans."

And Line has fans from one end of the country to the other. That translates to 51 shows in 53 days in 35 cities on her current tour, which ends Saturday in Salt Lake City.

"I'm getting sad, because it's coming to an end," she said. "We've been having so much fun."

When the Deseret Morning News caught up with Line, she was in the middle of a weeklong gig in her hometown of Minneapolis. She said this year's program has a traditional Christmas theme. "In the past we've been sensitive to everyone and to different religions, but this year I'm doing my first traditional Christmas show ever."

The show will be centered around the birth of Christ as related by several different stories. "It's going to be Christmas fact and fancy," Line said. "We're doing the Magi story, the story of St. Nikolas, who was an actual bishop in the early church, and Dickens. It's going to be entertaining and educational."

And her husband of 20 years, Tim Line, has a more active role in the new show than in past productions. Before, he was the show's emcee, but "you'll be seeing him a lot more this time," she said.

There is also a CD of the show, "The Traditions of Christmas," which Line recorded earlier in the year and which will be available at the concert.

Line does all of her own arranging. "A lot of people don't get it. I write all the parts and do all of the arrangements."

In the beginning, Line arranged popular songs just for the piano. But gradually over the years, she realized she wanted more. "It just happened. My arrangements for solo piano evolved to include other instruments, too." That was the beginning of her 10-piece Pop Chamber Orchestra, which accompanies Line on all her shows.