St. Paul’s United Church hosts performance by the Dundas Concert Band
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Sat., Dec. 10, 2022 timer 2 min. read
The Dundas Concert Band is excited to present a Christmas Concert at St. Paul’s United Church (29 Park St. W. in Dundas) on Sunday, Dec. 18 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.
It’s a return to normal seasonal activities after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus. The band presented its Summer Concert Series in the Dundas Driving Park last summer and has been hard at work for three months to pull together a special Christmas program.
The concert is free. Donations to the band will be gratefully accepted. The band writes tax receipts for amounts of $10 dollars or more.
The Dundas Concert Band has carefully planned its return to the concert stage with new arrangements of seasonal music. The band thanks its supporters for donations that made new purchases possible after lost performance revenues the last two years.
The program compiled by Musical Director William Rolfe ranges from the familiar “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to traditional seasonal concert band music.
New traditional selections include the flashy arrangement “Fantasy on the Huron Carol” as well as the “Fantasy on a Burgundian Carol.” This selection is based on the old French Christmas carol “Patapan,” first published by Bernard De La Monnoye around 1700. This contemporary setting explores a variety of textures from simple to intricate.
Another new selection is an arrangement called “A Holst Christmas.” Gustav Holst was a famous composer of classical music and was a key figure who defined the instrumentation of the modern day concert band. In this collection of tunes you will hear his most famous original Christmas carols and his settings of traditional Victorian era carols.
“Disney At The Movies” is another new medley for the band for 2022 and is programmed as a showpiece for this program. This is a blockbuster arrangement that contains 14 excerpts from several of Disney’s greatest movie hits over the years. Music from “The Lion King,” “The Little Mermaid,” the original “Mary Poppins,” and “Aladdin” are some of the movies that are represented.
The perennial Mariah Carey favourite “All I Want For Christmas Is You” should also be a big hit this year. Other pop Christmas music to be performed is “We Need A Little Christmas” (from Mame) and “Do You Hear What I Hear” (the band is doing an arrangement adapted from the TV series “Glee”).
Other modern settings of traditional music will be featured. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is also included on the concert. There is something for everybody at this year’s Dundas Concert Band annual Christmas Concert.
Gordon Cameron, group managing editor of Hamilton Community News, serves as master of ceremonies.