Long-cherished holiday songs such as “O Come All Ye Faithful” as well as twisted takes such as “12 Days of Christmas Confusion” are part of the Juneau Symphony’s fourth annual Holiday Cheer Concert featuring a trio of ensembles this weekend at Thunder Mountain High School.
The program of more than 20 songs spans centuries, as well as genres ranging from classical to international folk to modern. There’s also featured soloist and singalong selections, plus a free pre-concert student performance by the JS Prelude Orchestra before the main concert on Sunday.
“We have all new music every time,” Charlotte Truitt, executive director of the Juneau Symphony, said Thursday. “So it will be a variety of music — jazz, classic, traditional, sacred — there’s really something for everybody to enjoy in this concert.”
Performers include 22 instruments from the Juneau Symphony and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s Holiday Brass, plus 12 singers with the local group Vox Borealis. Truitt said that while those groups are familiar to people who’ve attended past Holiday Cheer Concerts, the on-stage lineups are changing along with the song selection — including letting the audience hear Vox Borealis in a whole new way.
“Generally they sing sets of a cappella music,” she said. “But this time we’re going to give them some accompaniment with brass and strings.”
Also, the participants from the Sitka group feature notable musicians from elsewhere each year, Truitt said.
“This time we have, for example, the associate principal horn player for the San Francisco Symphony with us,” she said. “A gentleman from Seattle Symphony is with us. Someone is from the Columbus Symphony. We have freelancers from the Los Angeles area that play on all the movie soundtracks that are out there now. These are really top-tier are musicians that are coming in and joining our really talented resident musicians of the Juneau Symphony.”
Flute player Inga White be featured as a soloist on G.P. Telemann’s “Les Plaisirs” and “Rejouissance” from the Suite in A Minor during the first half of the concerts. The final song before intermission will be an audience singalong of “Silent Night.”
The estimated 20 students conducted by Franz Felkl will also play a program of holiday tunes in the lobby of TMHS starting at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Truitt said.
Sunday’s main concert at 3 p.m. is sold out, but she said people wanting to hear the student performance can still attend that and there is a waiting list for the main show. She said there were about 80 to 100 tickets remaining as of mid-morning Thursday for the concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
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Know and Go
What: Holiday Cheer Concert featuring the Juneau Symphony, Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s Holiday Brass and Vox Borealis, with a pre-concert performance by the JS Prelude Orchestra.
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday (latter sold out, waiting list available).
Where: Thunder Mountain High School, 3101 Diamond Pk. Lp.
Tickets: $20-$48, available at www.juneausymphony.org.
The JS Prelude Orchestra performs in the lobby at Thunder Mountain High School before the main 2022 Holiday Cheer concert. (Courtesy of the Juneau Symphony)
