Many things are associated with Christmas time: trees, stockings, presents, yummy treats and holiday music. Around this time of year, catchy tunes fill the air, with both new and traditional approaches in their sounds. Often, these popular Christmas-time hits are only heard on the radio. However, students of the Pleasant Valley bands look to make their own renditions of holiday hits accessible to those wanting to hear through upcoming community performances.
Along with their upcoming formal winter concert in early December, groups of Spartan band members will fill the Bettendorf Family Museum with holiday tunes this Sunday afternoon. Traditionally, the event has invited community members of all ages to flood to the main entrance area in order to listen to Christmas classics. For years, this event has been dominated by the presence of “Tuba Christmas”, the music only being played by lower voices such as tubas and euphoniums. However, this year the band will call this event “Winterfest”, and will additionally include flute and clarinet choirs.
As for preparation, the groups gather outside of their daily band rehearsals to practice the choir music. Junior clarinet player Shreya Khurjekar explained the rehearsals prior to the Clarinet Christmas performance, and other groups follow a similar routine. “The rehearsals usually consist of run throughs of the music. We want to clean up every piece we decide to play on Sunday to make sure that everybody will enjoy and recognize the pieces.”
The rehearsals may be a little time consuming in a busy student’s schedule, but these students love seeing the pay off. Senior Jacob Bumann, who has been playing the tuba in this event for 7 years ensures the extra work and time is well worth it. “Winter is the time when I have the most fun as a low brass. In Tuba Christmas, I don’t have to play boring bass lines and can play something more enjoyable. A lot of people are really shocked at just how good a group of all low brass can sound, and it’s really fun to surprise them like that,” Bumann says.
The Pleasant Valley band encourages you to come out and join in the holiday fun this weekend! Christmas music festivities will begin at noon, beginning with the tuba and euphonium ensemble with the flute and clarinet ensembles to follow. The event is set to take place at the Bettendorf Family Museum with a small admission fee.
