Waiting until two days before Christmas to start gift shopping tends to be something other than a harmonious experience. But performing a similar feat tunefully are about 30 people in three distinctly different music ensembles who are wrapping up a full bundle of seasonal songs in two days together for the Juneau Symphony’s fifth annual Holiday Cheer concert this weekend.
The concert has been in the works for much longer, with artistic director Roger Schmidt saying Friday he usually starts putting the program together in August and building on ideas from the previous year’s show. The performers get the music about a month ahead of opening night, and since most are familiar with such arrangements adjusting to each other rhythms and volumes is standard practice.
“I would say that it actually it sounds fantastic right from the get-go and that usually gets us really excited because we’re all coming from different places in the country,” Schmidt said. “We get our first notes together and it’s just everybody gets really inspired by the sound.”
This year’s concert, with performances scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Thunder Mountain Middle School, features string and brass players from the Symphony, Vox Borealis and the visiting Sitka Holiday Brass ensemble. The show is expected to be about an hour and 45 minutes long with an intermission.
Brass players rehearse for an annual Holiday Cheer concert Friday at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Schmidt said all of the songs should be familiar to most people, ranging from “Hallelujah Chorus” to “Setting the Trap” from the move “Home Alone.” The arrangements will vary in style and density, with some being structured for individual performances that will perform them and others in ways that incorporate all of the musicians.
“One of the pieces I just heard on a recording — it was a recording of London Brass performing with the Hamburg Boys Choir,” he said. “It was a really beautiful arrangement — ‘Veni, veni, Emmanuel’ V — and I just wrote to the fellow in Germany. I looked him up, the arranger, and I said, ‘Johannes (Kohlmann) is there a way I can purchase your arrangement?’ So every year I’m looking around, I’m studying what’s out there. I’m always trying to add to our repertoire and build a really strong program with the strings and voice they’re doing. They’re each doing independent pieces and then we’re doing a few pieces together.”
Schmidt, who is the executive director of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp as well as a member of the Juneau Symphony, said one of the concert’s challenges is getting the Sitka Holiday Brass group he plays in to sound fuller than their size without overpowering the other groups on stage.
“It’s a pretty heavy demand on them because rather than having a 60-piece orchestra we’re replicating it all with 11 people,” he said. “So the harder part of this concert is just the number of notes and the endurance of it.”
Two songs will feature individual performers. Sarah Radke Brown, director of Vox Borealis, will be a soloist on “Hallelujah Chorus,” and Juneau librarian MJ Grande on a song Sitka Brass often features in its holiday shows in Sitka.
“It’s a arrangement of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ that combines narrator and then a really fun arrangement for the brass ensemble,” Schmidt said.
Saturday’s concert will feature pre-show music by the TMMS Jazz Band and on Sunday the Juneau Symphony’s Prelude Orchestra will play before the main show. Baked treats will be available both days and Santa will be present for photos during Sunday’s intermission.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
