WALLACEBURG ARTS: Holiday music to channel nostalgic energy
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‘Tis that time of year again!
The leaves are all down, that American holiday that we have somehow adopted (Black Friday) has come and gone and family gatherings are rapidly approaching. The craziness of the season and the pressure to find the perfect gift or bake the most exquisite holiday meal is upon us.
You really need something to get you in the holiday spirit. Something to ignite that childhood spark within you. A little bit of the magic that those of us not raised with a digital device attached to us as youth can recall. A moment that harkens back to those carefree days of yore.
I recall making snow angels with my sister Janet in our front yard on Cromwell Street in Sarnia in December, making a massive snow woman (we were ahead of our time) with my childhood friend Shane as his mother baked goodies in their old farm house. If that nostalgic energy is what you would like to channel, we have some gigs for you!
On Dec. 2 at Wallaceburg District Secondary School the Wallaceburg Concert Band will be presenting our annual free Christmas concert and it is always a hit with a large audience. Come to the school for 90 minutes or so of some classic Christmas charts, a few more modern and the power of a full concert band playing. If you need a Christmas pick me up – this is a great place to start. I will let Dave follow up with more information on this in his next column, the week of the show.
The following week, 23 members of the concert band will assemble for the first annual (we hope) Wallaceburg Brass Quintet and Friends Christmas Concert. As regular readers may recall, this past spring the quintet hosted our first full concert and decided to augment our playing with some other small ensemble, or chamber music, from the WCB. The first gig was musically successful and had a modest audience of 50 or so at the Jeanne Gordon Hall.
The quintet decided to build on that event and host this Christmas concert. We will present this gig at First Baptist Church on Thomas Avenue in Wallaceburg Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. Following the lead of the WCB, this gig will be free with donations gratefully accepted to assist with the First Baptist Helping Hands dinner program, a program that offers “free, delicious, heat and serve take out supper” to local families.
Our lineup will feature our quintet playing several Christmas charts and we also have a flute trio, saxophone duet, low brass trio, clarinet choir and trio, trombone duet, flute and piano duet and mixed ensemble filling out our hour of music. We will be playing everything from “Silent Night” to “The Grinch!”
Joni has been working her magic approaching local businesses to fill gift bags with goodies for children attending the performance. They will be distributed by a very special guest just before we pull all of the ensembles together to lead everyone in a Christmas sing along. While we truly hope anyone who loves the music of the season attends, we have intentionally set this show for the afternoon to encourage families with young ones to come out and enjoy a wonderful Christmas experience.
We would like to thank the incredibly kind sponsors who have all contributed to the goodie bags to help make this event even more festive and special. At the time of writing, we have donations from Canadian Tire, Comic Oasis, Harvey’s and Swiss Chalet, McDonald’s, Mark and Sarah’s No Frills, Rexall, Shoppers Drug Mart, Taylor’s Convenience, Tim Hortons, Toy Wars and Collectibles and Wendy’s with a few more still to come.
Still on the subject of Wallaceburg Brass Quintet, we have been invited to play at the opening of the council meeting on Dec. 11. We will be performing the national anthem and two “festive pieces” for a total of five minutes.
This is a part of an initiative by Mayor Darrin Canniff and council to recognize arts and culture and its value to the community. It is an honour to be asked and to be the first performing arts ensemble represented at council and it is a way for us to say thank you to the municipality for the funding it allots to arts and culture in this and all communities across C-K.
Finally, have you been to the Mary Webb Centre for the Arts? They have a few concerts there every winter and coming up on Dec. 16 is Leahy Celtic Roots/Christmas Cheer. Joni and I recently travelled there with our friends Jim and Janet to see The Fugitives and the venue is acoustically beautiful in a quaint old former church. It is worth the drive to Highgate. Check them out at https://marywebbcentre.ca/event/leahy-saturday-december-16-2023/.
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