A brass band will team with the Island Bel Canto Singers to perform holiday music in Nanaimo next month. Festive Brass will bring its Christmas in Canada tour to St. Andrew’s United Church in the Old City Quarter on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m. The traditional family Christmas concert will include a “rich mix of timeless carols and festive favourites, along with new Canadian compositions.” In addition, the brass musician ensemble will be doing its own versions of Christmas classics such as Silent Night and Good King Wenceslas. Stevan Paranosic, Festive Brass leader, told the Nanaimo News Bulletin that the group wanted to present the program with a twist. “It’s like a fun program of Christmas music, but not in a pedantic kind of way,” he said. “We like to add a little bit of fun to the program and musical shenanigans just to keep everything light and feel-good.” This takes the form of adding a polka twist to Up on the House Top, turning The First Noel into a slow jam and adding a Latin twist on We Three Kings. “We have a few more traditional things. The highlight I think is going to be the piece near the end where we take the famous Christmas poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore, and the lyrics will be sung by the choir and the brass will add some musical snippets underneath while they sing through the poem.” By performing with Island Bel Canto Singers, Paranosic said it gives the brass players time to have a break between pieces, as well as the opportunity to combine to create a nostalgic atmosphere he considers intrinsic to a Christmas show. “Immediately adding words makes all the shenanigans make a little more sense because it wouldn’t make sense musically if we venture into a new direction if we don’t have the words to kind of lock you into, ‘oh yes, they’re singing about this song.’” As a result, audiences can expect a heartwarming concert, and a celebration of the true spirit of Canadian Christmas. “We’re inundated right now with Christmas music everywhere, elevators, malls, it’s all in the background and it seeps into the unconsciousness, but when you go to see it live in a concert we feel that the choir and the lyrics and the brass paired together kind of anchor you back to what is the meaning behind each one of these Christmas carols and just gives you that nostalgic feeling again.” Attendees are invited to sing with the choir during select songs. Like Island Bel Canto Singers in the Harbour City, Festive Brass will perform with other area choirs, including the Village Voices of Qualicum Beach in a Dec. 20 performance in Parksville. For ticket information, visit www.festivebrass.ca/holidaytour2025 [http://www.festivebrass.ca/holidaytour2025] and for more on Island Bel Canto Singers, visit http://islandbelcanto.ca [https://islandbelcanto.ca/].
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