by Glorianna Nichols.
Symphonic and honor bands to perform Christmas concert in the auditorium at 6:30 on Dec. 19.
“When people come to the concert, they should expect to see two large bands each play different tunes of varying styles, which is a lot of fun,” associate band director Alanna Curley said. “They can also expect to see our percussion section featured, which is really cool because those are all of our folks who were in the drumline.”
The honor and symphonic concert bands will collectively perform familiar festive songs “with a twist,” like a jazz version of “Let it Snow” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
“We try to play music that’s kind of timely to the Christmas season,” Curley said. “So, you’ll tend to hear renditions of our arrangements of holiday tunes or songs you might hear on the radio.”
Along with Christmas songs, Curley states that “winter-themed” music will also be featured at the concert.
“Our honor band is playing a song called ‘Toboggan,’ which is this upbeat snow themed song, and the symphonic band is playing a piece they’re really excited about called ‘The Mountain,’ which is all wintery and fun.”
Senior Rigby Samuels, a clarinet player in symphonic band, is one of the members who expressed her excitement for this particular piece.
“It’s basically a combination of some classic Christmas songs and it’s amazing,” Samuels said. “We’re kind of remixing it to make it different and unique, which I’m stoked about.”
Senior Sydney Spell, an honor band member and clarinet player, is looking forward to performing her first solo at the concert.
“There are going to be some other solos in addition to mine,” Spell said. “Everyone should come because it’ll be super fun. This is both our Christmas concert and the first concert all year since marching season.”
The “inside concert setting” is something Curley enjoys about the Christmas concert.
“Until this point of the year, we’ve been playing everything on a marching band field, which is super fun, but it’s a nice change of pace to be inside in a little bit more formal setting on a stage,” Curley said. “It’s exciting to hear the different groups and let these students showcase what they’ve been working on.”
Curley wants the audience to acknowledge that the band members have been working “really hard” to perfect their performance.
“We get to recognize everybody for their hard work,” Curley said. “It’s just a nice way to close out the semester with some great music performed by some great people.”
