Mark Milovats brings annual holiday show to the Byham

During the Christmas season, two annual events are inevitable in the Pittsburgh region: Santa Claus will visit good girls and boys – and Mark Milovats will perform his holiday spectacular.

Milovats, a Trafford native and graduate of Penn-Trafford High School and the University of Pittsburgh, has done his holiday show every year for more than two decades in different venues.

He started the tradition in 1997 at The Palace Theatre, Greensburg, and moved to Heinz Hall in 1999 and his current location at the Byham Theater in downtown Pittsburgh in 2000.

Even though he has performed internationally, appearing on stage, screen, TV and radio and opening for Engelbert Humperdinck, Barry Manilow, Perry Como and other headliners, he always comes home for Christmas.

‘Enchanted Christmas’

This year his 22nd salute to the season, titled “Enchanted Christmas,” will take place at 7 p.m. on Dec. 1 at the Byham Theater.

On the phone from Nashville, where he is working on a new album scheduled for release in 2020, Milovats said the latest edition of his holiday extravaganza will feature his Holiday Pops Orchestra comprised of 16 musicians, along with more than 30 dancers, including the University of Pittsburgh Golden Girls, North Allegheny High School cheerleaders and a children’s choir representing several area school districts.

Also featured will be some “surprise celebrity guests,” including a live penguin — of the bird and not the hockey player variety, he noted —that has been “kind of a staple in my show,” Milovats said. “Usually I sing to him.”

The program will include some of his favorite holiday tunes, such as “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “O Holy Night” and “Sleigh Ride,” in addition to the entertainer’s take on some of his signature pop standards, including “Copacabana” and “My Way.”

Student performers

Milovats is proud of his partnership with area schools, including Bethel Park School District, which has made student participation in his annual concert part of their music program for grades 2 through 11.

“They have been extremely supportive, realizing the value of this opportunity for their children,” he said.

Milovats formerly was a third-grade teacher in the Penn-Trafford School District. He still finds time for helping students around the country to improve their reading skills as part of a national initiative that he considers “one of my big projects.”

He also has been instrumental in helping local charities by performing benefit concerts.

Family support

Milovats credits his grandfather for helping to kick-start his musical career when he was a young boy. He would pay his grandson a quarter when he learned a new song, “and I also had to sing it in Croatian,” the entertainer said. “It was my first paid gig.”

He also followed in his father’s footsteps when he was young by performing as a member of the Junior Tamburitzans, the Trafford Tamburitzans and the Golden Triangle Tamburitzans.

His mother, Annamae, who lives in the Trafford area and in Florida, still helps her son by designing his sets for his Christmas show and will be backstage for the Pittsburgh concert, Milovats said. His sister and brother-in-law, who live in the Pittsburgh area also plan to attend his performance.