“Music carries on as you get older. You can use it your whole life.” – Megan Fournier-Mewis
Prince Albert Concert Band director Kayleigh Skomorowski says adults sometimes lose the magic of Christmas to the stress of shopping and cooking.
The band has teamed up with the Prince Albert Children’s Choir to perform music they hope will take the public back to that care-free childhood love of the holidays.
Their third annual Christmas concert together will start at 7 p.m. at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre this Sunday, Dec. 15. The two groups held their last rehearsal for the event at the Calvary United Church on Wednesday.
“A lot of the music is really looking into what makes Christmas magical and special,” said Skomorowski.
“We’re doing the medley from Frozen specifically for the kids. There’s a lot of The Grinch both in some of the stuff that the Children’s Choir is doing and we’re doing and then a few other Christmas classics like Sleigh Ride.”
For the Prince Albert Children’s Choir’s artistic director, Megan Fournier-Mewis, the collaborative concert is an “exciting” event.
“It’s fantastic for my students to see how music continues into adulthood and it continues to be something that you do extracurricular,” she emphasized.
“Music carries on as you get older. You can use it your whole life, so that’s why it’s so great to put them together.”
She said joining the Children’s Choir doesn’t require an audition. There’s currently 38 in the group ranging from age five to 17.
With the exception of one song, the choir is focusing on music from Christmas movies this season. Fournier-Mewis said she wanted them to learn Here We Come A-waissaling, a traditional English carol.
“It’s more challenging music than they’ve done in the past and they’re really rising to the challenge.”
Aside from the Concert Band, the Children’s Choir has also joined forces with the Prince Albert Strings Orchestra and school choirs such as École Vickers and Arthur Pechey.
Skomorowski’s husband Brock is accompanying the choir and their son decided to join this year.
“My husband and I are both very involved in music programs in our schools and at the community level and stuff and up until this point, our boys have just been kind of pulled along,” she said. “To finally have my oldest now be a part of it and being on stage and all of that is pretty special for us.”
She emphasized that although school concerts are important, they’re “very much about the academic experience.”
“This is just about the music and community and bringing people together to get into that Christmas spirit and experiencing that magic and that wonder that it is for little people,” she said.
“If people want to take a break from all of that (stress) and experience that again, then they should come out for the concert.”
Admission is by donation at the door.
