The Port Angeles Symphony will have its Christmas concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at the Port Angeles High School Auditorium, 304 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles, featuring conductor candidate Richard Sparks.

Tickets are $30 and $20 for reserved seating; $15 and $12 (seniors) for general seating. At 10 a.m. the public can attend the final rehearsal for $5 per individual and $10 per family. Free admission to everyone 16 and younger when accompanied by an adult. Tickets are available at Port Book and News and the symphony office in Port Angeles; The Good Book in Sequim; and Sequim Village Glass in Carlsborg.

Sparks is primarily known as a choral conductor, but always has loved working with orchestras and has worked with them regularly. He grew up in Seattle, attending the University of Washington for both bachelor’s and and master’s degrees in music. His doctorate was at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where orchestral conducting was his cognate field and he worked with Teri Murai in orchestral conducting.

For four years he was Director of Choral Activities with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, conducting members of the orchestra regularly with the SSO Chorale.

Sparks then spent eight years as a freelance conductor, working in the U.S., Canada and Sweden. He was also artistic director of Pro Coro Canada in Edmonton, Alberta, one of three professional chamber choirs in Canada, for 12 years.

In 2009 Sparks became Professor of Music and Chair of the Division of Conducting & Ensembles at the University of North Texas, where he regularly conducts his Collegium Singers and the Baroque Orchestra in four concerts each year, also conducting them twice at the Boston Early Music Festival. He also works regularly with the Concert Orchestra at the University of North Texas.