2025, Gatherings, Music, Uncategorized

Community Music

31 Comments

I know that November and December are very busy seasons for musicians, but I have been astounded by the number of musical performances by local musicians since we moved here. When I grew up here, all the music was in the school and the churches.

In the last two weeks there have been musical performances by a variety of groups downtown in stores, in outdoor public performance spaces, and in the Palace, the old Vaudeville theatre. They performed in the snow storms. The music ranged from classical, folk, and rock. Children and adults have been playing and singing all around town. The school is having concerts.

Next Sunday, there is a big concert of a variety of musicians at the Senior Center. We bought tickets to attend. I signed Husband up for guitar lessons at the local music school. Is this typical for small town Minnesota? Our ND town was extremely musical, but not like this.

What is your favorite holiday music? What would you like to perform or hear?

31 thoughts on “Community Music”

  1. I like more old-fashioned holiday music. Carol of the Bells, Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella, Greensleeves. I also like holiday music that’s off the beaten path. Think 12 Days of Christmas by Straight No Chaser or Donde Eres Santa Claus.

    One of my gifts every year from my BFF Sara are tickets to Cantus. One of the series is always the Christmas concert, which is actually coming up this week. Not sure what they’ll perform, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will do their classic Ave Maria by Fritz Bieber. It makes me cry.

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  3. I like a real mix – love to play the traditional carols on the piano, but I love the offbeat stuff too.
    I always listen to Amahl and the Night Visitors, and hope to find the Christmas Revels on Solstice – if not, I have it recorded.

    There are tons of concerts here this year – a medieval music group the Blue Heron Consort this Sunday, a regional harp group, a men’s a cappella quartet all have Christmas Concerts, and I’ve already missed some of the school band and choir ones.

    There are a few carol-sing gatherings too, I’ll be co-leading one at our Arts Center. And one where our Unitarians revive the nursing home caroling tour…

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  4. I like creative arrangements of classic carols. Connie Evingson has a beautifully arranged Christmas CD. Sam Robson’s Christmas CD is also wonderful. He sings some songs I’d never heard before, plus did some of his usual jaw-dropping arrangements of some classics.

    But the one album that will stick with me forever as perhaps my all-time favorite is the Percy Faith Orchestra disk from probably the 1950s. Straight ahead lush orchestral arrangements of all the “best” carols.

    Owatonna has a pretty active music scene. Lots of fundraising concerts through the year. The OHS carolers perform about 30 times during the season all over town. Lots of church performances too. About once a month a music group performs at the Owatonna Arts Center. Usually classically oriented.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    The weekend of 12-22 we will be heading out to the Arboretum Concert Series where Lou’s former Jazz Band (Jazz on the Prairie) will play a Christmas Concert. We will attend with some dear friends and have lunch before the concert. I was out there over the weekend for the Arb Auxilliary sale. The Arb is decorated beautifully for Christmas. I picked up just a few stocking stuffers (bookmarks, handmade soap). This post is a good reminder that I must go find my Christmas CD’s. The Roches and the Muppets are must listens, as well as a very old harp album done by the sister of my former neighbor.

    Renee, Luverne developed an active music program in the schools over the years which must supply some of the musicians in the community. When I was a kid we used to march and play at band contests there. Pipestone, just up the road, is known as a real music power house. Why should all those young people give up playing music after growing up? Luverne also is close to Sioux Falls, and it must serve as a bedroom community for the labor source in SF. Those folks would be very likely to bring in musical skills. What a delight to find in your new community.

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  7. When we lived in Winnipeg we had a couple of friends who played cello and horn in the Winnipeg Symphony. We had them over to the house one evening in December, and they requested we not put on any music by Tchaikovsky. They said playing selections from The Nutcracker so much was like drinking sugar syrup.

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  8. I am sure there is much music stuff here, but I have been otherwise involved for a few years. I have not been able to hear in a large room/auditorium setting for about 8-9 years. Today I cannot see clearly within 6 feet of me and my hearing is flat. My focus is all on my surgery Thursday, which takes a bit of prep and lots of follow-up. I could easily get through the season hearing no Christmas music. I could listen to Sandra’s Russian Christmas music, but anything Russian is not appealing.
    Clyde

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  11. I like a variety of holiday music of my choosing in small doses.

    One tradition that I’m especially fond of is the singing of carols in the pubs in and around Sheffield, England from mid-November until Christmas, the so-called Sheffield carols. If you’re not familiar with this tradition, here’s a link some background information. Be sure to listen to the Pentonville sung at the Royal pub in Dungworth:
    https://blog.chrisrowbury.com/2023/12/the-sheffield-carols.html

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  13. I listen to many kinds of Christmas music, from medieval/Revels to classical to jazz. There are even some favorites from “pop” performers, like the album “December” by the Moody Blues, Peter, Paul and Mary’s holiday album, Dan Fogelberg’s Christmas album, and John McCutcheon’s Winter Solstice album with “Christmas in the Trenches.”

    This weekend, we’re going to a holiday concert at Orchestra Hall titled “Merry and Bright,” expecting lots of brass and jazzy interpretations of Christmas music.

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