The Salem Community Band and Choir will perform Christmastime Is Here at the Salem Community Theatre this Friday and Saturday night.
Band Director Matt Webster says the group of more than 50 community members ranging in age from junior high to 80 years old have been working towards the performance since October.
“It’s a lot of the typical Christmas favorites and some unique arrangements. We are doing one called “Holiday Piece” based on the Ukrainian Bell Carol which is a really dynamic piece. We are doing Go Tell it on the Mountain but in a different style. It’s kind of jazz and upbeat swing. A wide variety of things, something there for everyone.”
The second half of the show will be a sing-a-long when everyone in the audience will be invited to sing a-long to Christmas Favorites.
Webster says a lot of work has gone into the performance.
“Each player does their own practicing at home. I do my score prep at home and looking at things and what I need to work on one week to the next so we continue to grow and get better each time.”
This is Webster’s second year at the helm of the community band. He’s being joined this year by the Salem Grade School Board’s new band director Andrew Steininger who is handling the choir.
The Christmas program is being performed for the fourth year. Diane Sechrest and Debbie Woodruff came up with the concept of the Community Band after a reunion of the former One Way Singers that many of the performers were part of in their high school days.
“We started after that final one way singer reunion performance we started planning for a Christmas show. We started recruiting and once again many of our members had their horns hidden away since high school. We told them that is not an excuse. We will find you a loaner horn and give you a fingering chart. It’s not like riding a bike, but it will come back. As we have continued to work together our numbers have continued to grow.”
Woodruff says they are always interested in adding additional members of all ages even though she has questioned if this year’s group will all fit on the theatre stage.
The program will be performed on Friday and Saturday nights this weekend at seven pm. Tickets are $5 and are available at Salem City Hall or Sam Phillips CPA as well as online at the Salem Theatre’s website at salemiltheater.org.
An offering will be taken up at intermission with the money this year to be split between the Salem High School and feeder grade school music programs which operate in many cases on very limited budgets.
Salem Community Choir at Sunday rehearsal ahead of the Christmas program to be presented at the Salem Theatre on December 2nd and 3rd.
