31st Annual Holiday Concert, Dec. 9
Westfield Community Concert Band
The Westfield Recreation Department will host its 31st Annual Holiday Concert featuring the Westfield Community Concert Band and the Edison Intermediate School Broadway Singers on Thursday, December 9, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. at Edison Intermediate School, located at 800 Rahway Avenue, Westfield, NJ. This free public concert culminates the band’s 109th anniversary concert season. The band performed its 1st Annual Holiday Concert at the Roosevelt Intermediate School in December 1990 with the Roosevelt “Sharps and Flats” chorus.
Highlighting a program of holiday favorites, the band will performTwas the Night Before Christmas, the renowned poem by Clement Clark Moore, set to music by Randol Alan Bass. The band will feature Kerry Stubbs as narrator of the poem, with concert band accompaniment. In addition, Mr. Stubbs, a vocalist, actor, and music educator, has been a featured vocalist and narrator with the band for many years.
The band’s program also includes, The Eighth Candle, a contemporary celebration of Hanukkah, by composer Steven Reisteter, Sheep May Safely Graze, by J.S. Bach, The Many Moods of Christmas, by Robert Shaw and Robert Russell Bennett, March of the Toys (March of the Wooden Soldiers), by Victor Herbert, and The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, by Eddie Pola and George Wyle, made famous by vocalist Andy Williams. The band will also perform Leroy Anderson’s popular holiday composition, Sleigh Ride, written in 1948 for the Boston Pops. This very well-known selection was originally written as a musical portrait of the winter season, but soon became associated with the holiday season.
The Broadway Singers will perform a variety of holiday music featuring the choir’s unique arrangements and choreography. The program will conclude with a combined performance of Irving Berlin’s, White Christmas, with both band and choir, which is an annual tradition dating back more than twenty-five years ago.
The Westfield Community Concert Band is conducted by Dr. Thomas Connors, now in his 17th season with the band. Also, Westfield music educators, Kenneth Horn and Stephen Markowski, vocal specialists in the Westfield School District, co-direct the Edison Broadway Singers. Further, masks and social distancing will be observed.
As the band completes its milestone 109th concert season, the band continues to seek out experienced area musicians to perform a wide variety of concert band literature for its many area concert events. Interested musicians should contact Dr. Connors through the band’s website, info@westfieldcommunityband.com. The band rehearses every Wednesday evening from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the community room located in the Westfield Municipal Building located at 425 East Broad Street, Westfield, NJ.
This concert is made possible by funds from the Union County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
For Event Details:
Thursday, December 9th, 7:30 p.m. — Westfield Community Concert Band presents its 31st Annual Holiday Concert at Edison Intermediate School Auditorium, 800 Rahway Avenue, Westfield, NJ.
