Carols, classics, love songs, movie scores, Russian music, pop tunes, medleys, jazzy Christmas versions and even a waltz.
“There is something for everyone,” says conductor Jeff Dent, describing this year’s free holiday concert by Williamsport’s world-famous Repasz Band.
Slated for 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 12 at the Community Arts Center, the ensemble’s annual Christmas-season performance is entitled “A Few of Our Favorite Things — The Holiday Edition.”
Reprising a selection-process from the band’s concert in April, this program consists of songs recommended by individual players.
“In July, our band members had the opportunity to suggest favorite Christmas or holiday works,” Dent explains. “After the members took time to review those 70 suggestions, an online poll helped narrow it down to 20 possible works in 10 different genres.”
This was followed by sight-reading and a final vote — after which, says Dent, “We ended up with a very entertaining and challenging list for this December concert.”
Clarinetist Bill Kowatsch, for example, suggested “A Most Wonderful Christmas” because, as he put it, the piece is “a fine medley of Christmas songs that are not Advent or Christmas carols. I grew up with these songs, and for some of us, the arrangement may remind us of the stylings of Lawrence Welk.”
Fellow clarinet-player Charlene Sterner recommended a medley from the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” “The music and lyrics were written by Danny Elfman as an operetta style in which the songs are an integral part for telling the story,” Sterner explained.
Saxophonist Mona Chang said she picked “Minor Alterations” because “it’s a collection of Christmas songs with a twist: Changing them from a major key to minor key makes them just different enough to be interesting.”
Tuba-player Rebecca Bay chose Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” because “I feel like a Christmas concert is incomplete without it.”
Meanwhile, sibling trombonists John Stone and Tracy Vannucci chose “Fantasy on O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”
“Not only do we love this hymn,” explained Stone, “but also, this arrangement combines both the traditional hymn and the musical fantasy and expands the musical imagination with various styles.”
That energetic piece will be under the baton of associate conductor Theo Lentz, who later leads the band through Alfred Reed’s show-stopping “Russian Christmas Music,” which Lentz described as “majestic” and “a staple of many holiday concerts.”
“The complexity in Reed’s work,” added Lentz, “creates an exciting and beautiful experience for listener and performer alike.”
Associate conductor Jessica Lewis will conduct “Nightmare” and the sprightly 10th-century carol “Gaudete,” along with “Symphonic Prelude on ‘Adeste Fidelis.’”
Dent himself conducts the opening “Star-Spangled Banner,” as well the group’s signature finale, “Repasz Band March.” Dent leads the ensemble through everything else on the program, which also includes “Greensleeves” and “Rhapsody on Christmas Carols.”
The latter was suggested by trumpeter Dave Sorgen, who admired its 18 time-signature changes, along with its selection of “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” “We Three Kings,” “Deck the Halls” and “Joy to the World.” That final tune, said Sorgen, makes a “glorious and triumphant conclusion” for the wide-ranging medley.
Sorgen’s wife, French-horn player Shelley, chose “Greensleeves” along with bass clarinetist Laura Schreckengast. They both loved the arrangement’s many countermelodies where, in Shelley’s words, “arranger Alfred Reed once again demonstrates his mastery of orchestration.”
During the concert, each of the 10 holiday selections will be preceded by a video introduction from the players who recommended it.
The performance is free and open to the public. So in the words of percussionist Anne Wilson, who chose the “Adeste” variation: “Sit back and let the music take you to a beautiful cathedral on Christmas Eve.”
