Middlesex Concert Band Free Holiday Concert

Join the Middlesex Concert Band for its annual Holiday Concert, which will take place Dec. 15, 2024, at 3:00 pm at Galvin Middle School in Wakefield. The band will perform many memorable pieces, such as “The Night Before Christmas,” “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring,” “Three Moods of Hanukkah,” and Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.” Thanks to a generous donor, the concert is free of charge.

Joining the band again this year will be guest soprano April Foley, an accomplished singer and voice teacher with a teaching studio in North Andover. She will be narrating “The Night Before Christmas” and singing in the medley “Christmas from the 50s,” which features familiar tunes such as “Frosty the Snowman” and “The Christmas Waltz.” Foley will also be leading a holiday sing-along. The Band will also play the medley, “A Contemporary Christmas,” featuring tunes such as “Feliz Navidad” and “Jingle Bell Rock.” The program also includes a clever piece called “Minor Alterations,” which features familiar Christmas tunes transposed from a major to a minor key. That piece’s dramatic ending includes a frenzied excerpt from the finale of the Nutcracker Suite.

Finally, all will enjoy a pleasing arrangement of the calypso tune, “Mary’s Boy Child,” as well as Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” which comes complete with the sounds of a cracking whip and a neighing horse.

The Middlesex Concert Band’s annual holiday concert is traditionally one of its best attended concerts. Audiences will enjoy the lively program chosen for this year.

The Middlesex Concert Band’s Holiday Concert will take place Sun. Dec. 15 at

3:00 pm at Galvin Middle School Auditorium (525 Main St., Wakefield, MA). The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Middlesex Concert Band’s website.