The Ecole St. Mary High School Music Department is getting ready for their annual Christmas Concert.
The Music Department Christmas Concert is on Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Ecole St. Mary Lecture Theatre. St. Mary band teacher Julie Abbs said they’ve been preparing for the concert since school began, and are excited to share their music.
“We’ve been preparing basically since the beginning of the year,” she said. “We start right in September with songs that I plan for us to play at our concert in December. It’s been going well.
“Obviously, there are some times that we can’t rehearse this music. We have to like spend special care on like Remembrance Day and like other events that happen between now and Christmas. But overall, it’s been going really well. We’re kind of just putting the finishing touches on things now.”
The St. Mary Choir, Grade 9 Band and Grade 10 Band will each be doing four selections, the Grade 11 and 12s are doing five or six selections and the St. Mary Jazz Band will be performing three songs.
Abbs said there is a great mix of ages in the music department.
“I would say there’s about 80 students who are in band at the school and it’s pretty evenly split. We have got about a little bit more than 30 in the Grade 9s. The Grade 9s are maybe the biggest chunk of band kids this year.”
There are then 25 in Grade 10 and 25 in the combined Grade 11 and Grade 12 group.
She said having all the young players bodes well for the future.
“It is really good, it’s easy, (and) nice to build off of a good foundation like that,” Abbs said.
The St. Mary Choir was part of the Prince Albert Concert Band Christmas performance at Calvary United Church on Sunday.
Abbs is also the director of the Prince Albert Concert Band. She said the opportunity served as a bit of a “preparation performance” for the choir.
“(It was) kind of a pre-concert performance, I guess, to sort of run the pieces for the first time in a performance setting and get our feet under us a little bit,” she explained. “It went pretty well. Obviously, there’s a couple of things we’re working on this week, but overall, I thought it was good.”
She said the Concert Band has guests every year and it was someone else who suggested the St. Mary Choir as this year’s guests. Past guests have included the Prince Albert Children’s Choir and the Prince Albert Youth Jazz Band.
She said the concert itself will be a mix of Christmas songs along with the regular repertoire the bands are already working on including the Grade 9 band.
“We’re doing a piece called The Tempest by Robert W. Smith, and they really love that one.
It’s a traditional concert band selection. The Grade 9s love that,” Abbs said.
She said the Grade 10s are doing the medley from How the Grinch Stole Christmas and it sure to be a crowd favourite.
The Grade 11 and 12 band is working on some fun pieces according to Abbs.
“Our Christmas one is, it’s called the Three Minute Nutcracker. It’s selections from the ballet, the Nutcracker, but just very just like small chunks of each to get through seven different movements from the ballet in three minutes. It’s fun and recognizable.
They are also working on favourites from Pixar movies.
“It’s got music from Cars, Ratatouille, Up and Toy Story and all those classic Pixar movies along with some classical traditional repertoire as well. Those are kind of the fun ones we’re working on,” she said.
This year the Grade 10, 11 and 12 bands are heading to Banff for their annual band trip and she hopes people support the band with admission by donation.
“It’s a little bit more of an expensive one, just because Banff costs a little bit more,” she explained. “All of our proceeds from the door are going directly to kind of offset the cost of that trip for students.
“It’s just admission by donation, but we are encouraging people to donate what they can to try and make it easier for these students to go to Banff this year.”
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
