Multicolored Christmas lights hung from the ceiling of the Howard Performing Arts Center concert hall. Audience members shuffled in from the back of the hall, filling the seats to an impressive turnout beyond the sparse numbers of previous post-Covid concerts. The Wind Symphony members warmed up individually with various excerpts of familiar holiday tunes in a cacophony of instrumental sound. The stage was set.
On Saturday, December 4 at 8:00 pm in the Howard Performing Arts Center, the spirit of Christmas wafted into the atmosphere in the form of music. Dr. Byron Graves, director of the Andrews Wind Symphony, strode onto the stage with a touch of red on his tux to celebrate his Christmas cheer, and the band stood up in respect of his leadership and musical prowess. He introduced the concert as a series of arrangements of familiar holiday tunes but in different settings. Without further ado, he raised his baton and launched into the first piece, “Festive Fanfare for the Holidays” by James Curnow. A collection of popular tunes, it was a grand opening to the rest of the program.
Familiar Christmas vibes continued to fill the hall as more selections outlined the melodies of “OHoly Night,” “Away in a Manger,” “Ding Dong! Merrily on High.” A notable piece was “Lux Aurumque,” or “Light and Gold,” a well-known choral work composed by Eric Whitacre, that he had also transcribed for wind symphony. With its glorious swells and palatable dissonances, it worked well with a group of wind instruments that utilized the human breath just like a choir. The first half of the program concluded with a selection named “Joy to the Season,” a medley of even more holiday tunes. Eleanor Joyce (freshman, music education) says that "as a member of the percussion section, I loved this concert's repertoire. The vibraphone bowing technique in “Joy to the Season” and the complex rhythms in “We Wish You a Mambo Christmas” were such fun challenges!"
As the Wind Symphony returned after the intermission, Dr. Graves led out a Spanish bullfighting-style rendition of Jingle Bells in the “Jingle Them Bells!” with trumpet flourishes and dissonant intervals. Members of the woodwind section moved to the percussion for this selection to assist in an extended percussion ensemble within the larger band. With the added bells, chimes, and cymbals, it was beginning to sound a lot like Christmas.
A crowd favorite among the younger generation, “Symphonic Highlights from "Frozen",” conducted by student conductor–and clarinetist–Jason Marquez (junior, music performance), launched to a rhythmic and driving rendition of the Disney classic. The medley included popular tunes “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?”, “For The First Time in Forever,” and, of course, “Let it Go.” Regarding his opportunity to take the podium and impressive job directing the ensemble, Jason says “I waved my stick, and things happened magically.”
The following number was a fantasia on themes from the Nutcracker. Arranged by Julie Giroux in 2011, the piece had a modern take on the traditional music; it illustrated the daydreaming of various Nutcracker themes, then it shifted to an actual dream sequence of the listener being absorbed into the world of the ballet. Regarding the band’s performance of “Nutcracker Fantasia”—one of the longer pieces on the program—Samantha Cardwell (sophomore, music performance) mentions that “it felt so magical. The music itself made me feel like I was immersed into a whole other world. Especially the fantasy on the Nutcracker, since it is one of my favorite ballets.”
“We Wish You a Mambo Christmas,” with its Latin-American syncopated dance rhythm, drove the concert to a close. Near the end of the piece, the Wind Symphony surprised the audience by yelling “Mambo!” in a festive cheer. Regarding the concert as a whole, Ricardo Navarro (graduate, music performance) says “I think we were kind of cold, so coming together with the first piece, which was fast and energetic, it was tough to play together. But as the concert went on and we warmed up, it started flowing a lot better. The adrenaline of the concert brought some better results in general–musically speaking–in my opinion. The Mambo song brought such a great energy, and afterward, I got a lot of positive feedback from people.”
The concert was well received with a burst of applause and holiday spirit, as Dr. Graves himself noted “I do believe that’s the fastest standing ovation since I started teaching.”
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.