Daily Sitka Sentinel

Holiday Brass Set for Tenth Anniversary Concert

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    When you hear the sounds of Gabrieli from the balconies at the Performing Arts Center at the annual Holiday Brass Concert, you can picture the way the music was first played, from the choir lofts of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice.

Musicians at the 2016 Holiday Brass Concert gather on stage at the Performing Arts Center. (Sentinel file Photo)

    It’s a favorite moment for many audience members, as the conductor – spotlit on stage – guides the musicians through the piece as they create a surround-sound effect for the audience.
    “Gabrieli wrote a huge body of work for brass,” said concert director Roger Schmidt. “He was the first great composer to write for brass, and the music director for the cathedral in the 1500s.”
    The 10th annual Holiday Brass Concert is 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, at the PAC. The event, a fundraiser for the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, has become a holiday tradition for Sitka.
    The concert draws on music going back centuries to modern times, from around the globe. The musicians come from some of the best symphonies and performance groups in the United States and Canada, including a few who have grown up in Sitka and perform today on a professional level.
    Schmidt said this is a special year, being both the 10th anniversary of the brass concert, as well as the 10th anniversary of the PAC. Playing Gabrieli from the balconies is a good illustration of how the music was first performed, as well as how the building can be utilized, he said.
    Gabrieli is a sentimental favorite for trumpeter Ross Venneberg, a born and raised Sitkan, who is pursuing a doctorate of music at the University of Washington. He will be conducting the piece, but remembers his first time being asked to perform Gabrieli alongside professional musicians at the Holiday Brass Concert while he was still a college student.
    “Playing with those musicians was always a treat for me,” Venneberg said. He started trumpet in fifth grade, and was one of Schmidt’s former private students, who went on to get his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music.
    Schmidt always includes one piece from Gabrieli in the diverse program every year, giving audience members a taste of early music written for brass, and taking advantage of the second level in the PAC.
    But the rest of the program ranges through the centuries and includes household-name composers, such as Handel and Mendelssohn, as well as modern pieces and works not written originally for brass.
    One of those is Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, a piece that many may be familiar with through its use at memorial events and in film soundtracks, including “Platoon.”
    Schmidt said it is considered “one of the greatest pieces written in our time”; Schmidt took the choir version of the song, and arranged it for brass.
    “One of the biggest challenges will be to sustain the emotional arc of that piece,” Schmidt said. “It has a lot of energy; it will push the group.”
    The concert always has a mix of carols and other holiday music. This year’s highlight, Schmidt said, is a “stunning arrangement for eight voices” of “Silent Night.”
    Schmidt said he’s looking forward to sharing with the audience some of the Latin influences in the evening’s programming. A bright trumpet and tuba piece from the opera “Carmen” will show off the virtuosity of the trumpet section, and another set draws on the musical traditions of Puerto Rico, which Schmidt said was inspired by the struggles of the people in this year’s disastrous hurricanes.
    “It will give us a chance to celebrate and remember their culture during the holiday season,” Schmidt said. “The island has a rich culture and musical tradition that we wanted to honor.”
    One of the pieces, Eternal Source of Light Divine by Handel, will feature a solo trumpet (Mary Bowden) and solo voice (Rhiannon Guevin).
    Other Sitka-raised musicians in the program include percussionists Paul Cox and Ed Littlefield; Wade Demmert, bass trombone; George Jones, trombone; and a group of school-age performers, Anja Brooks-Schmidt, Mina Brooks-Schmidt, Tava Guillory and Lucy Poulson, who will open the show with a short brass piece. A few Sitka percussion students, Kobi Weiland and Cora Dow, will help create a percussion ensemble with Cox and Littlefield; and Blatchley Middle School student Mina Brooks-Schmidt will sing a solo.
    Tickets are $25 for general admission; $20 for school-age children and seniors, at Old Harbor Books. Tickets can also be purchased online at fineartscamp.org/shows/