The Okanagan Symphony Orchestraѻý Christmas concerts this weekend are a trip down memory lane for music director Rosemary Thomson, lyric tenor Ken Lavigne, choir director Frances Chiasson, and their audiences in ѻý, Penticton and Vernon.
The three Comfort and Joy concerts also sowed the seeds of nostalgia in the Grade 4-7 students performing in the Okanagan Childrenѻý Chorus.
Following Fridayѻý concert in ѻý, the Penticton concert is at 7:30 p.m. today (Dec. 17) at Cleland Community Theatre and the Vernon presentation is a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday (Dec. 18) at Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre. Tickets for Penticton are available through the KCT Box Office at 250-469-8940; for Vernon, contact Ticketseller at 250-549-7469.
Concert selections range from the sacred O Holy Night to the fun-filled Frosty the Snowman, Let It Snow and Santa Claus is Coming to Town with audience sing-alongs encouraged.
When the orchestra launches into Hark! The Herald Angel Sings and The First Nowell, itѻý difficult not to get a lump in the throat. And when every instrument reaches a crescendo, itѻý a tidal wave of emotion. And then, of course, there are these wide-eyed elementary school children singing with those high-pitched youthful voices in harmony with numerous musical instruments they likely have never seen or heard before.
With a laugh during a rehearsal break Thursday, Thomson admitted she sang these Christmas carols hundreds of times as a child growing up in the middle of seven kids with parents who met singing in a choir.
“We drove around in an old station wagon with no radio (thatѻý how old I am), and we sang and we sang and we sang. I grew up in a church choir. In thinking of this concert, when we decided to call it Comfort and Joy, I feel like the first half is more of that nostalgia, that traditional, more religious Christmas carols, lots of awe and wonder, those kinds of feelings. And in the second half, we get into the Grinch, Rudolph and the more fun, more contemporary music.”
All of it takes her back to her youth – before VHS video taping or on-demand streaming - “so there was one chance to watch the Grinch at Christmas every year. So if it landed on a choir practise night, it was just awful.”
As well, involving the childrenѻý choir in the OSO concerts brought back strong memories of Christmas Eve services, promenading around the church with her older look alike sister, candles lit. Thomson remembers singing the same O Come, O Come Emmanuel from the program when she was a child.
“There has been such loss in the last few years that I hope (the concert) really does bring comfort for those that might be struggling at this time of year. Just hearing music, being surrounded by acoustic music is so great. And thereѻý something so inherently sincere about Ken, this beautiful serenity, joy, integrity.”
Talk about nostalgia, Thomson conducted his first show with an orchestra in 1998 on a Vancouver Island tour with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra but nothing since. “He hasn’t changed at all. He looks exactly the same, sounds just as gorgeous,” she said.
Lavigne, Chiasson and many members of the orchestra also grew up singing in choirs, Thomson noted.
With a laugh, Lavigne admitted he sang Christmas carols “all the time, ad nauseum. I loved singing even when I was a little kid. It wasn’t a particularly musical family but every year around Christmas time, we would bust out the Christmas carols and sing.”
Even in his older years, there was always something special about Christmas music, he said.
“The melodies really draw you in. There is something so sweetly sincere about some of these wonderful melodies. When you start hearing any song that has jingle bells, chimes or a brass band in it, you are immediately swept up in it.”
Lavigne, who coincidentally has an album entitled Comfort and Joy, has performed Christmas songs for more than a month on his current tour but accompanying a symphony orchestra really brings these melodies to life.
“I think it takes me to that place of where I was as a child,” added Chiasson. “Itѻý a warm and cozy feeling, absolutely. My teaching children means that I am trying to instill that in them now so that they can come back to it later in life as well. I have one piece of music that I use with my childenѻý choir in every Christmas show in order to try to build that (nostalgia) in for them. And I have kids who are older who come back and say: ‘Can I sing that with you now?’ Absolutely, it stuck.,” she said.
“When I think about Christmas music and sharing it with my singers and audiences, I am aware that it may be the closest that we in Canada come to having a common set of repertoire that many people know and that we can share together. There aren’t many other songs that we all know. May we continue to seek out common language to share with others - whether it be musical or not.
“Music is my way of communicating emotions - be that joy, sadness, longing, melancholy, excitement - any emotion really. I would call music my second language, but really itѻý my first language for being able to share that which can’t be put into words. I have the joy of teaching singing to groups of people of all ages. I teach them to share their own voices to make beautiful sounds and to combine them with others for even more beauty. Itѻý a privilege.”