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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Clarion puts unique spin on Christmas

Brass choir’s annual concert delivers fresh takes on holiday favorites

Courtesy of Clarion Brass (Courtesy of Clarion Brass / The Spokesman-Review)
Travis Rivers Correspondent

Spokane has a full share of Christmas traditions like other cities – the creches, the trees, the Santas, the sales and so on.

But few cities have events that are full of the quirky fun of Spokane’s annual concert by the Clarion brass choir.

Founded by trumpet player-composer-arranger William Berry, Clarion is an ensemble of 12 brass players plus percussion.

Tonight’s Clarion performance at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox will feature soprano Ann Fennessy in Berry’s wildly creative and virtuosic new takes on holiday standards and some Christmas rarities. Gonzaga University’s Robert Spittal will conduct.

Clarion’s Christmas programs have grown increasingly popular over the years as they have been performed in various churches in Spokane.

“This year we’re moving to the Fox, where we know people will be impressed with the beauty of the hall as well as the music,” Berry says.

“The program this year will be what we like to think of as the absolute best from Clarion’s past 17 years, plus all-new arrangements I’ve done for Ann Fennessy,” he says.

“But for those who did hear us last year,” he adds, “there will be only one piece repeated from our 2007 program. ‘The Carol of the Bells’ is something everybody likes so much, we just couldn’t leave it out.”

Berry’s arrangements mix inventive, laid-back and shimmering Christmas sounds with some high-energy rhythmic twists and musical humor.

They have been taken up by large brass ensembles all over the world, including the brass section of the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Bay Brass and Portland’s Big Horn Brass.

“You can play Christmas songs straight out of the hymnal and that sounds just fine for brass,” Berry says. “But we try to go beyond that while still making sure people can still recognize the tune.”

Guest artist Fennessy is well known in Spokane from her performances with nearly every musical organization in the city. She is known nationally through her appearances on “A Prairie Home Companion,” at the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival and singing the national anthem at a Chicago Bears football game.

“One of the songs Ann will sing is a new arrangment of Thad Jones’ gorgeous jazz ballad, ‘A Child Is Born,’ ” Berry says. “It was originally an instrumental, but Dianne Reeves added words to it.

“And we have a set for Ann that includes the spiritual ‘Mary Had a Baby,’ ‘Mary Did You Know?’ and, for the novelty piece, ‘Zat You Santa Claus?,’ made famous by Louis Armstrong and the Commanders.”

In addition to tonight’s concert, Clarion’s music will go national on the “Dr. Christmas” show, streaming online through Christmas Day from the University of Wisconsin’s public radio station, WRST-FM.

Gerry Grzyb (for obvious reasons known as “Dr. Christmas”), head of the sociology department at the University of Wisconsin-Oskosh, has been called “the world’s authority on Christmas music,” with a continually expanding library of more than 5,000 CDs.

He selects the best Christmas albums to feature in his annual showcase.

“He contacted me earlier this year and told me he’d learned about our Christmas CDs from Warren Hartman, the music director for Kenny Rogers,” Berry says.

After receiving them, he says, “Dr. Christmas was ecstatic and told me he would definitely air a substantial representation of Clarion’s material.”

You can check out the schedule at www.uwosh.edu/ wrst/index.php?page =christmas.

There’s also a link to Dr. Christmas’ written reviews of the cream of this years crop, including Clarion’s “Nutcracker Suite Dreams” and “A Partridge in a Pear Tree.”