Solano Winds, seen performing previously at Paradise Valley Estates in Fairfield, will perform its annual Christmas concert Friday night in the Downtown Theatre in Fairfield. (Reporter file/Contributed photo)
What would Christmas be without music? After all, Christmas carols and music, which embody the spirit of Christmas, have been around since the earliest days of Christianity, as far back as the 5th century.
Locally, in more modern times and its musically singular way, the Solano Winds community concert band will continue its annual tradition of performing a series of holiday favorites on Friday evening in the Downtown Theatre in Fairfield.
In a press statement, Music Director Bill Doherty noted the program features three Christmas medleys covering 20 classic holiday tunes, a new arrangement for some Hanukkah tunes, some classic band music, and some Sousa-inspired music, the latter a reference to John Philip Sousa, the American composer and conductor known primarily for military marches.
Music gets underway with “A Most Wonderful Christmas,” a Robert Sheldon
arrangement that features a number of popular contemporary holiday melodies. Afterward, the Solano Winds Brass Quintet will perform Sousa’s “Fairest of the Fair,” “one of his most melodic marches,” noted Doherty.
Still in a Sousa mood, the full concert band then will return to the stage to perform the third movement of Ira Hearshen’s “Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa.”
“This movement, ‘After ‘Fairest of the Fair,’ has musical snippets from that melodic march running through this spritely symphonic interpretation,” Doherty explained in the prepared statement.
The mood turns more contemplative, with Ronald Lo Presti’s composition “Elegy for a Young American,” as band marks the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the 1963 murder that changed the course of American history.
The program’s first half ends with a birthday celebration of sorts as the band performs “St. Louis Blues March” by composer W. C. Handy, who would have turned 150
years old in November 2023. The tune’s arrangement is heavily influenced by the Glenn Miller Big Band interpretation from the 1940s.
At intermission, concertgoers will have an opportunity to finish — or start — their holiday shopping. The 60 Solano Winds musicians are collaborating with their respective instrument sections to create themed gift baskets that will be raffled off and taken home that evening, said Doherty.
The concert’s remainder begins with Alfred Reed’s “Russian Christmas Music,” and, he said, “Listeners will be transported to an Orthodox church setting for a piece that begins quietly and builds to a tremendous climax.”
The spirit of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights that begins this year on Dec. 7, will be heard when the band performs “Dreidel Dance,” a mix of the “Dreidel Song” and “Hava Nagila,” almost certainly to be full of fun and energy.
Echoing the musical flavor of Broadway, musicians will perform “Christmas on Broadway,” a medley of holiday tunes that originated onstage. The program ends with Leroy Anderson’s medley of classic Christmas tunes, “A Christmas Festival.”
Holiday revelers are encouraged to come to the City of Fairfield’s Tree Lighting at 6 p.m. in downtown Fairfield, then stay for the concert.
IF YOU GO
What: Solano Winds
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Downtown Theatre, 1035 Texas St., Fairfield
Tickets: $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, available at the theater box office or online at solanowinds.org
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