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I love Christmas, and furthermore I love, love, love Christmas music. Working as a guitar teacher for a few decades now I’ve heard every carol and taught them all, and while I have my clear favourites (I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, for example) I like almost every single traditional holiday tune there is. While my fellow music teachers would groan with every December lesson I couldn’t wait to start into the Christmas favourites every year, and one of my musical hobbies is coming up with solo arrangements of holiday tunes.
So yeah, I love Christmas music.
I’m also a pretty big fan of the National Arts Centre Orchestra so I was happy to score some tickets to their holiday pops concert, A Gospel Christmas on December 16th, 2011. Like most pops concerts the show featured our very own national orchestra led by a guest conductor and backing up a small group of guest vocalists.
As always it was 100% total pro top-to-bottom and it reinforced the cozy Christmas vibe that starts to firmly take hold of the world this time of the year. Next door to the NAC the trees were lit up throughout Confederation Park and shoppers were sloughing their way through the Rideau Centre, snowmen littered front yards all over the city and the skaters were waiting for the canal to freeze over for the season. Meanwhile inside Southam Hall violins and violas were wishing us a very merry while soul singers howled about silent nights, pipers were piping and little drummer boys were laying their gifts out for the new boy-king.
Do you hear what I hear? It was world-class Christmas cheese and I ate it up like a big plate of shortbread cookies.
With apologies to Mick Jagger, I know they’re only Christmas carols but I like them.
Todd Man Out 