Clarion continues ringing in the Christmas cheer with annual concert

If you like “Hallelujah,” the Clarion Brass Choir can help you out this season.

George Frideric Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus from “Messiah”? Yep. Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia”? Of course. Even Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”? Check and check.

And they’re all performed by some of the area’s brass players (with a percussionist thrown in for good measure).

The Spokane-based brass choir will perform all three songs as part of this year’s “Hallelujah for Everything” tour, which takes them to St. John’s Cathedral in Spokane on Tuesday and the Salvation Army Kroc Center on Wednesday.

There will be other songs, too, said Clarion ringmaster William Berry. They’ll revisit the “Zither Carol” – which sports the line “Hallelujah for everything” – delve into contemporary tunes such as “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and play classics such as “Hark! The Herald Angles Sing” and “On That Night in Bethlehem.” There even are a few songs that on the surface don’t have anything to do with Christmas. The Cohen song is one of them. There’s also “My Favorite Things” from the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music,” and a traditional Basque song, “The Angel Gabriel.”

“In the cathedral and at the Kroc too, it’s a huge sound,” Berry said. “It just screams Christmas.”

The vast majority of Clarion’s musicians also play for the Spokane Symphony, including four principal players: Larry Jess (trumpet), Ross Holcombe (trombone), Leonard Byrne (tuba) and Paul Raymond (percussion).

“It’s fun because they can play just about anything I throw at them,” Berry said.

This year will mark the 24th year of holiday performance, Berry said, and he’s already looking ahead. “Next year will be 25th, and I don’t know if that’s diamonds or cutlery, but I think of it as the brass anniversary,” he said.

“You can go forever and keep throwing in things,” he said. “Twenty-five years and I still haven’t run out of things to do.”