The holidays are sure to be filled with joyous music as The New York Pops prepare for their Christmas special Make the Season Bright (December 16 and 17 at Carnegie Hall), which this year features two pairs of incredibly talented siblings; the Callaway sisters Ann and Liz, and the Nunziata brothers Will and Anthony. To prepare for the festivities I spoke to the charismatic brothers.

How excited are you about your Carnegie Hall debut?

Anthony Nunziata: When I got the call that we would play Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops I was humbled by it. I’m so excited to get to sing so many new songs, I’d never imagined songs my brother and I wrote together would premiere at Carnegie Hall. I’m also singing on the stage for my family, it’s a New York bedrock, the pinnacle of a lot of artists’ dreams.

Will Nunziata: It really is a dream come true, we’re born and bred New Yorkers so this is the ultimate dream, growing up we listened to our favorite entertainers’ recordings in Carnegie Hall, whether it was Frank Sinatra or Judy Garland, so to debut with the Callaway sisters who we’ve always admired, and have Steven Reineke at the baton is great. Our parents sacrificed so much to help us make our dreams come true, we have hundreds of family members, friends and fans traveling from across the nation to see us perform. We’re so thrilled!

What are some of your favorite holiday related pop culture memories or experiences?

Anthony Nunziata: It was a family tradition to watch the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer TV special, we’d all sing along to it. We have a very close family, from our birthday near Thanksgiving through Christmas, it’s so great to be with my family, it’s all about love, spending time with them is what matters most to me.

Will Nunziata: We’d also watch TV specials like Peter Pan with Mary Martin which was my favorite. We still sing some of our favorite Christmas songs, so we hope the concert will be able to bring that intimate feel to the big stage. I’m grateful we had all of these traditions because I hope to pass them on to my family and children sometimes.

We’ve all heard that story about you guys doing You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown as kids, did you also like the holiday special?

Will Nunziata: Absolutely. Whether it was A Charlie Brown Christmas or all those claymation specials we loved. We were born in the wrong era, we loved the same TV shows our parents watched growing up.

What are some of the challenges when it comes to selecting songs for a holiday album? Especially when you wrote new songs, were you nervous about how your songs would fit within the holiday canon?

Anthony Nunziata: The idea of our Christmas EP came from a song we composed in April called “The Gist is You”, the inspiration behind it was some circumstances in our lives, we realized there was a universal message in the song and that it could be the anchor to other songs to come. I co-wrote two other songs “Love is What We Celebrate” and “Mama’s Little Angels”, which we paired with classics. We hope the new songs will have a familiarity to them, and they express something new to people. Songs aren’t for me, they’re for people.

You guys are constantly making jazz and standards cool, was that part of your mission?

Will Nunziata: That’s a great point, we love singing our truths, we grew up listening to jazz and standards. I’m grateful we surround ourselves with some of the best musical arrangers in the country like Tedd Firth. One of my favorite things is seeing a mother and a son our age come to our concerts and have the mom thank us for the fresh spin we gave the song she loves, and the son say he thought it was a new song. We really like the fact that we can entertain all generations. At the end of the day the classic songs have amazing melodies and lyrics, they’re mini three act plays, they all tell stories.

Giving the current state of the world, arts education will be more important than ever, can you talk a bit about your outreach program?

Anthony Nunziata: I’m probably most proud when Will and I work with students, we hope we can start a fire in their bellies, to tell them their passion will take over. I hope when we do these classes we show school administrators how important the arts are. Expressing one’s voice through the arts is more important than ever, art unifies us, I’m going to continue doing my small part to show how important art is to the world.

What advice would you give to parents who have kids who want to go into the performing arts?

Will Nunziata: We let the kids know they will get many nos along the way, but if they’re passionate they should pursue it. A lot of the parents ask us for advice, and we tell them all they need to be is supportive, if performing is their kids’ bliss they should support them and love them.

What’s your drink of choice during the holidays?

Will Nunziata: Hot chocolate!

Anthony Nunziata: I have so many concerts this season that it’s probably going to be hot water, honey, lemon with a bag of throat coat. I highly recommend it to everyone though, but if it has a little something in it, a Hot Toddy is the way to go, but not too much alcohol though.

What’s your absolute favorite song to hear your brother sing?

Will Nunziata: I have to be nice? His rendition of “Oh Holy Night” is gorgeous.

Anthony Nunziata:  I love when he sings “Being Alive” from Company, he kills that song, he sings it so authentically and beautiful.

What song that he doesn't do often would you love to hear him sing?

Will Nunziata: I have to be nice again? I’m very proud of my career with him, but Anthony individually is an amazing songwriter and he’s in the middle of writing songs for our new album, so I can’t wait for the world to hear some of the new songs he’s writing for himself and both of us.

Anthony Nunziata: I have a few spinning in my head, I’m just trying to find my brother’s voice in my head...hold on. (Hums) I would love to hear Will sing something funny, so I’d love to hear his version of “The Worst Pies in London”, I’d wish him well if he sang that.

Would you trust his pies though?

Anthony Nunziata: I would not eat his pies, but I would enjoy the song.

Merrily We Roll Along was very significant in your careers, so what’s your favorite Stephen Sondheim song and for you Anthony, one of his characters you’d love to play, and Will one of the shows you’d love to do at some point?

Anthony Nunziata: “Somewhere” from West Side Story is my absolute favorite, its message is so perfect for our times. I sang it recently in Texas and people came up to me particularly remarking how timely the song is. We are so much better as a country together, and we’re so strong as a country when we work as a whole, it’s a beautiful place for all of us to live in. A role I’d love to play Tony from West Side Story would be fun!

Will Nunziata: Oh my God, I have two answers for the song. My favorite song is “Being Alive”, it’s a song I have an affinity for, I know the song will grow with me, it’s like an onion, each year I live I get to peel a little bit more of the onion. As for the musical, I love the Sondheim canon and I’m so fortunate I’ve been able to direct and befriend so many great ladies of musical theatre, I can imagine so many of them in so many parts, but if I were to direct one I would say Gypsy. I have what I think is a pretty innovative idea to do a revisal of the show, the bones of the musical are perfection, it’s a great marriage of music, libretto and lyrics. I have this idea which I hope I get to do in the next ten years. I hope I can make it to pay homage to it and heighten the musical to a new level. Sondheim is my favorite, he speaks to the human condition like no other. This is so therapeutic for me, thanks for letting me talk about musicals!

For more on the Nunziata Brothers visit their official website. For tickets to Make the Season Bright click here.