November 30, 2004

Free holiday concerts a gift from Purdue Bands

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Free holiday concerts from Purdue University Bands offer opportunities to celebrate the season in a variety of musical styles – from jazz and Broadway to the boldness of wind bands and the lush sound of a string orchestra.

Set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 10-12, the series of family-friendly concerts kicks off Dec. 10 with Holiday Cheer & All That Jazz, a traditional campus event that features the Purdue Jazz Band, American Music Review big band and singers, and a repeat performance by the Golduster "Rockettes" Dance Line introduced in 2003.

The 8 p.m. Friday concert in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse features jazzy arrangements of favorite holiday tunes like "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Here We Come a Wassailing," big band swing versions of "Jingle Bells" and "O Christmas Tree," and straight-ahead classics like "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Christmas Song" performed with singers. The Rockettes, dressed in fur-trimmed red velvet costumes, will dance to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

Greater Lafayette's Tuba Christmas, a musical event in which tubas play Christmas carols, precedes the concert at 7 p.m. Friday in the Stewart Center lobby. It is one of hundreds of Tuba Christmas events held in cities throughout the United States in December.

For the rest of the free concert weekend, musical action moves to the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 111 N. Sixth St., Lafayette. At 8 p.m. Saturday, Symphonic Holidays features the Purdue Symphonic and Fall Concert Bands. Highlights of the show include "Russian Christmas Music," "Festive Sounds of Hanukah" and Leroy Anderson's "Christmas Festival."

The weekend concludes with Classical Holidays, featuring the Purdue Symphony Orchestra at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Long Center. The program offers the opportunity to hear a 107-member orchestra with 60 strings perform "White Christmas," "Sleigh Ride" and Franz Shubert's "Ave Maria" with cello and harp solos. The orchestra also will perform four movements from Beethoven's Symphony No. 1.

No tickets are needed for any of the events, which all are free. Doors open 30 minutes prior to concert time. For more information call (765) 496-6785. The concerts are sponsored by Purdue University Bands with assistance for Tuba Christmas from Brent's Bench Instrument Repair Shop.

CONTACT: Kathy Matter, Purdue Bands public relations director, (765) 496-6785, kcmatter@purdue.edu

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