By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka’s traditional Holiday Brass is back – but in a new way, with the audience enjoying the music safely from home and Juneau musicians adding to the sound.
The Holiday Cheer Virtual Concert features several musicians who have performed in past Holiday Brass concerts, and musicians from the Juneau Symphony.
It is available starting 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20, through Jan. 3, on the website juneausymphony.org.
The concert is a blended enterprise of the Juneau Symphony and Sitka Fine Arts Camp, with the two groups splitting the proceeds. Sitka’s proceeds will go toward arts camp scholarships; Juneau’s will go toward youth programs in the public schools.
SFAC Director Roger Schmidt said the concert was months in the planning, and took an extra effort by everyone involved, including quarantining ahead of time in Sitka, and multiple tests for those wanting to participate.
Instead of the some 18 musicians, only a handful from the Sitka group participated, including one who had not performed at Holiday Brass for years due to scheduling conflicts.
“It was originally going to be two shows, one in Juneau and one in Sitka, with our group joining the brass section for a concert there,” Schmidt said. He plays trombone and is the music director for Holiday Brass.
Musicians from around the country play at the 2019 Holiday Brass Concert at the Performing Arts Center. This year’s event features many of the same musicians but is being held online. (Sentinel File Photo)
The pandemic was the driving force, with Schmidt and Charlotte Truitt, executive director of the Juneau Symphony, putting their heads together to explore possibilities.
In the end, they decided on a virtual concert if one could be done while following precautions for COVID.
“It took a huge amount of work from a lot of people, to bring music into people’s homes,” Truitt said. “We need a lot of hope and encouragement at this time, and everyone loves the holiday concert. With a lot of grit and determination we’ve been able to get the concert in the can, and into people homes.”
Logistics were extensive, Truitt and Schmidt said.
“The board was committed and we spent what we needed to spend to make sure it was done safely,” Truitt said, of the Juneau Symphony board. (This concert marks the third of a three virtual concert series. The other two were smaller groups.)
The Holiday Cheer virtual concert was recorded at the Alaska State Museum, in the atrium, and the result was impressive.
“It was fantastic music done very well, with a lot of heart, and recorded with state-of-the-art production (equipment),” Truitt said. “The acoustics in that space were phenomenal. People will be very pleased with the quality of music they’ll get in their homes. KTOO and Betsy Sims from Studio A – I can’t thank them enough.”
Sales for this concert are strong, Truitt reported, with more than 425 tickets sold from more than 20 states, plus Austria and South Korea.
Half of the concert is a strings performance by a Juneau Symphony chamber ensemble of 12 musicians.
The other half is the brass group from Sitka and Juneau. Holiday Brass performers from the Sitka group include Schmidt, Wade Demmert (Washington state), Ross Venneberg (Wisconsin), Brian Neal (Miami), Amy Sanchez (Los Angeles) and Mark Inouye, from San Francisco, with Ed Littlefield (Seattle) on percussion. Demmert, Schmidt, Venneberg and Littlefield grew up here, and Neal is a SFAC teacher and owns a home here.
Among the five Juneau Symphony brass musicians is Ken Truitt, son of the late Gil and Shirley Truitt, who grew up in Sitka playing music with Schmidt.
The Sitka Holiday Brass musicians also perform a few pieces on their own.
KTOO-TV filmed and recorded the performance, using robotic cameras, a Juneau Symphony spokeswoman said. All technical crews were offsite, at KTOO.
The Sitka Holiday brass group quarantined in Sitka, and followed testing protocols. The Juneau Symphony performers also had to follow testing requirements, including tests before their first rehearsal, after which they formed a cohort until the performance, a spokeswoman said. She said performers received health screenings before the two rehearsals, and the performance last Saturday.
Since most have not been able to perform with others, due to COVID risks, Schmidt said it was “cathartic” to be able to do so again, even though there were a huge number of logistics to think through and follow.
“It was an amazing feeling, playing music again,” Schmidt said. “As musicians, we don’t take breaks, and this is the longest break any of us has had from playing with other people.”
Schmidt said the sound in the atrium was fantastic and believes it translates well in the recording.
The string concert includes selections from The Nutcracker Suite, Fantasia on Greensleeves, In the Bleak Midwinter, Ose Shalom (The one who makes peace), a piece by Arcangelo Corelli, Let it Snow, and Silent Night.
In the Brass Ensemble program are Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music by Handel, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Magnum Mysterium, Bach’s My Spirit be Joyful, Maoz Tzur, Trepak from The Nutcracker, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Farandole by Bizet, and Festive Cheer Medley, arranged by Roger Harvey.
Tickets are $30 for a household, but additional guests are $15. They can be purchased on juneausymphony.org website.
The program will be available by Sunday through a digital format. A pre-concert talk will start at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, or available at any time after that, through a link.
