Choir to Join in for Holiday Brass Concert

Details

Category: News

Created on Friday, 20 December 2024 15:41

Hits: 116

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The Holiday Brass Concert, a combination of top talent from across the U.S. and Sitka-grown musicians, will be on stage Saturday for a performance that’s part of a local holiday tradition.
    And this year, in addition to the trumpets, trombones and a tuba, a 35-member choir will be on the program. The concert, presented by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, will start at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Performing Arts Center.

Brad Hogarth, San Francisco Bay area musician teacher and conductor, at center, leads brass musicians from around the country in a rehearsal Thurday for the Holiday Brass Concert at the Performing Arts Center. The concert is set for 7 p.m. Saturday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

    The vocal group will include music teachers, former students, the Sitka High choir and some of the brass performers. Brass musicians are coming from the Seattle Symphony, the Columbus Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony and the “President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band.
    The program is always a variety of classical works, new arrangements of classical pieces, and various takes on holiday favorites.   
    The list of performers is extensive and includes about a dozen brass musicians and vocalists performing works by Hildegard von Bingen, Gabrieli, Bach, Handel and Franz Biebl. An instrumental version of the most famous chorus from Handel’s Messiah will close out the first half of the program.
    The second half will feature Christmas favorites, including Joy to the World, When a Child is Born (Johnny Mathis), a medley of songs from Christmas cartoon specials and “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
    Among the Sitka-connected talent performing are Sitka Fine Arts Camp director Roger Schmidt, who plays trombone and is producer of Holiday Brass, and Ross Venneberg, Andrew Hames, Ed Littlefield, Wade Demmert, Rhiannon Guevin and Mina Brooks-Schmidt, plus the choir performers. Mt. Edgecumbe High School alumni Virginia Pearson and school music director Heather Gluth will join the group on stage.
    Sitka born and raised Ed Littlefield, a busy professional percussionist and composer in Seattle, said he’s always happy to be part of the annual classical music concert.
    “It’s amazing, the amount of talent that comes in, people from all over the country,” he said. “It’s amazing to be part of that, and I don’t get to play classical music very often but when I do it’s so cool, that the concert is at such a high level.”
    He’s particularly looking forward to adding his voice, along with other musicians from the brass side who will join the choir for “Messiah.”
    Schmidt, who arranges some of the classical pieces and selects the pieces for the show, said he’s pleased the concert will feature Handel’s Messiah, which has never been performed at Holiday Brass before.
    Schmidt’s daughter, Mina, a vocal performance major in her junior year at college, will perform “Rejoice Greatly” from Messiah, one of two pieces from Handel’s most famous work. An instrumental version of The Hallelujah Chorus, arranged by Schmidt, will follow.
    “It’s probably the most heard Christmas choral numbers in the world, bar none,” Schmidt said. “When you think of how many Handel’s Messiahs that are being performed across the world from not until Christmas there’s nothing like it.”
    One piece, Veni Veni Emmanuel, will be an arrangement for brass and choir, a traditional song in Latin.
    “It’s very pretty, and has a play between the brass instruments and the voices, and it’s really well written,” said Andrew Hames, director of the Sitka High music program and one of several adults adding their voice to the choir. “Making the choir a part of the program, that’s a first, and it’s even more exciting that it’s made up mostly of local students.”
    “It’s exciting to have the high school students join us, we’re just absolutely thrilled about that,” Schmidt said.
    Brooks-Schmidt, who attends Carnegie Mellon University, is a soloist with brass musicians for Rejoice Greatly. The Baroque-era piece does come with some challenges.
    “That style means there can be a little more push and pull, so it’s nice having a conductor there,” she said. “There’s some moments of slowing down and speeding up and we have a lot of choices as to what we want tempos to be. ... There’s also a lot of notes, which is fun. So that was the challenge to learning it: it moves quickly and there’s a lot of notes.”
    Professional vocal performer Rhiannon Guevin will sing a more modern piece in the second half of the program, Vitae Lux (Light of Life), by Froda Alnaes.
    The program this year is dedicated to the late Shirley Brooks, Schmidt’s mother-in-law, longtime supporter, fan of Holiday Brass, and volunteer for the annual concert.
    Tickets for the concert are at fineartscamp.org and at the door.