On December 7 the Seymour band put together their first concert of the year. All three bands have been preparing for this Christmas concert ever since the beginning of November. The first performance for the evening was the Jazz band. The Jazz band consists of about 25 students. The Jazz band performed three songs; “Little Drummer Boy” by Rob Holmes, “The Christmas Song” arranged Jerry Nowak with soloist Josiah Massengale and Dustin Morris, and “Hot Chocolate” from The Polar Express.

While the Jazz band was performing the next band, Concert Band, started to get ready to perform their own songs. The Concert Band performed three songs; “Fanfare Prelude On “Ode To Joy” arranged by James Curnow, “Silent Night” arranged by Sammy Nestico and “Scherzo For Santa” by Matt Conaway. After the Concert Band was done five people played a beautiful trombone quartet. Senior Dustin Morris, Senior Josiah Massengale, Sophomore Trevor Layne, Senior Abby Wheeler and Senior Jacob Voss played “Christmas Trombones” arranged by J. Christensen & M. McDunn. Junior Christian Lawhead said, “…they sounded pretty good”.

The Symphonic Band performed “Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers” arranged by Ralph Ford, “In The Bleak Midwinter” arranged by Robert W. Smith and “Jing, Jing, Jingle” arranged by Chris Sharp which was a favorite for Lawhead.

fter the Symphonic Band Senior Shosei Ando, Senior Andrea Axsom and Senior Abby Davis performed a violin trio playing “Christmas Trio” by C.R. McManus. The next band to get ready was the Wind Ensemble. The Wind Ensemble performed four songs, one with the Seymour Choir and the other three by themselves.

The first song up was “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by John Moss, the second was “Emmanuel Variants” by Robert Foster which band director Kevin Cottrill said was the hardest piece the Wind Ensemble had that year. The third song the Wind Ensemble played was the famous “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson. The last song “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin, the band accompanied singers from the Seymour choir. This song was a favorite for Baughman, she said “it was interesting, you could hear the band with the singers.”

Both Lawhead and Baughman had fun playing in this concert and they both learned a lot from their songs that they played. Baughman thought that “Sleigh Ride” really challenged her with her tempo.