DECEMBER 10-12, 2021 – The Christmas season is always a busy time for SA musicians and for The New York Staff Band, this year was no exception.
With many of the band members spending time caroling with their home corps bands or going out on a kettle somewhere in town, the staff band started its own Christmas engagements with an ensemble playing in the middle of the iconic Times Square, NYC.
On Friday evening, December 10th, two days after the bands final rehearsal of the season, another ensemble from the band gathered at the Palisades Mall in West Nyack, NY to kickoff the annual NYSB Christmas weekend. The band was fortunate to play inside the mall on the lower level with plenty of shoppers stopping to listen from the balconies above, helping to bring some Christmas cheer and reinforce the Christmas kettle effort for the local area.
The following afternoon, the whole band arrived at Montclair Citadel, NJ to rehearse a few items in preparation for the evening festival with special guests, Boston Brass. A nice crowd gathered at the hall that was decorated with several Christmas trees and wreaths, really setting the mood for a night filled with inspiring music celebrating the advent season.
The New York Staff Band opened with Peter Graham’s march “The Wonder of Christmas’ before presenting a newer Marcus Venables work entitled “Glory in the Highest”.
There were a couple of opportunities for the congregation to sing along with the band in “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “O Come. All ye Faithful”.
Two of the more poignant moments in the program came from two new works, “Away in a Manger” (Dorothy Gates) and “Winter” (Simon Morton). Both pieces are featured in the newest Christmas American Band Journal available at USE Trade. Boston Brass presented music in two different sets on this occasion. The first set featured non-Christmas music, but dazzling nonetheless! A special mention goes out to tubist, William Russel for his non-stop bass parts and pyrotechnics not typically heard on the tuba, in addition to his own New Orleans style arrangement of “The Grinch”! All members of Boston Brass were absolutely superb but it was Costa Rica native, Jose Sibaja that stole the show with his blazing licks and range on Trumpet.
The New York Staff Band joined forces with Boston Brass to complete the concert with PLC’s “Christmas Finale” and in good SA tradition, the staff band sent the crowd home to the evergreen Erik Leidzen march, “Christmas Joy”.
Sunday morning came around quickly and the New York Staff Band were pleased to be back with the ladies and gentlemen of the Manhattan Adult Rehabilitation Center in NYC. After missing this worship time with the ARC in 2020 due to COVID, the band was blessed to listen and share in testimonies, which never fails to be a moving experience year after year. In addition to the band’s Executive Officer, Lt. Colonel Kathleen J. Steele bringing the word and challenge, a particular testimony stood out. A gentleman that has been at the ARC since 1991 shared that each year he looks forward to the band coming because of the lasting joy it brings him. As usual, a good meal followed the service and left a little bit of time before heading back over the Hudson River to New Jersey for a joint concert with the Princeton Brass Band.
NYSB principal euphonium, Aaron VanderWeele has recently taken over the reigns at Princeton Brass Band and was very quick to establish a relationship between both bands in which there is much crossover with members and audience. The venue for the final concert of the Christmas weekend was a fabulously restored 1927 theatre in
the heart of Bound Brook, NJ. A nice crowd gathered and there was much anticipation for the evening of music ahead.
The Princeton Brass Band took to the stage first presenting several familiar SA Christmas pieces in addition to some more jazzy holiday tunes featuring several members around the band as soloists. In a quick stage change, The New York Staff Band presented its items, bringing a message of peace and hope in the more tender moments and the reminder that Christ is the light that shines through us all in Peter Graham’s timeless, “Shine as the Light”.
In another quick stage change the massed bands joined together to present Stephen Bulla’s march “Bells of Christmas”, William Hime’s up-tempo jazz arrangement – “Three Kings Swing” and (in a bit louder than the night before), PLC’s “Christmas Finale”
It was a good end to a busy weekend of traveling around the metro New York area, but certainly something the band is happy to do each year, even with all of the other commitments that come with the Christmas season.
Simon Morton (NYSB Bb Bass)
