Orillia Silver Band returns with Brass and Voices Christmas Concert

NEWS RELEASE 
ORILLIA SILVER BAND
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The Orillia Silver Band (OSB) is back and is ready to celebrate the holiday season with a very special Brass and Voices Christmas Concert. 

The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, shut the band down in March 2020 just as the show SHINE was to hit the stage in early April! SHINE was to be a multi- media celebration of the OSB’s 70 years in Orillia.

Although very disappointing after a year of planning and rehearsing, the band was determined to stay engaged in the unknown months ahead. Ten challenging, fun and extremely rewarding virtual performances were recorded and posted on the Orillia Silver Band Facebook page.

Determined to play live, during the summer and fall of 2020 and 2021, while strictly following the Ministry guidelines for gathering, the OSB played in smaller groups in a member’s enormous back yard every Saturday morning. Sunshine and brass band music!

And now, the group is truly thrilled to be back performing in public once again with the Brass and Voices Christmas Concert. The concert takes place on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021, 2 p.m. at the Orillia Opera House.  Concert tickets are $25 for adults, $10 for students/children and are available from the Opera House Box Office at orilliaoperahouse.ca.

For this first full-group public concert, Neil Barlow, the band’s Music Director and Conductor has made sure that there is something pleasing for every listener on the program. Both new and traditional music of the season will be performed. 

The program includes A Great and Mighty Wonder, a stirring arrangement of traditional Christmas carols arranged by composer Kenneth Downie. Stephen Bulla’s exciting collection of holiday music – A Christmas Suite – will be on offer as well. 

British composer Philip Sparke is perennially popular with audiences, and the band will perform his beautiful Carol of the Shepherds on the concert. And the Three Kings Swing by William Himes will get your feet tapping while members of the band demonstrate their “swing band chops.”

The band is delighted to welcome very special guests to the stage for this concert. Jazzamatazz is a recently-reunited jazz vocal group based in Orillia – with a performing history that reaches back to the 1980s. Jazzamatazz will offer several tunes in their unique vocal stylings and will join the band for a rousing vocal and brass rendition of many of your favourite modern holiday tunes! Please don’t miss this entertaining afternoon of holiday cheer!

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