Members of the Ottawa Pops Orchestra gather for an intimate holiday concert of music for winds and brass.
The OPO Wind Quintet joins the OPO Brass Choir for a program that pairs traditional classics with new contemporary favourites. Get cozy with Sleigh Ride, My Favorite Things, and A Charlie Brown Christmas, alongside fresh takes on Troika and Michel Rondeau’s Fanfares for Christmas. The concert lasts just over an hour without intermission.
Please join us after the performance in Geneva Hall for a post-concert reception featuring complimentary hot cider from Farmgate—a warm finish to a winter evening.
Three Things to Know
1. Michel Rondeau’s “Fanfares for Christmas”
An Ottawa-based composer and trumpeter, Rondeau wrote hundreds of brass works that reflect the city’s musical character. His Fanfares for Christmas combines French-Canadian lyricism with the ceremonial style of British brass writing, a festive nod to local tradition with an unmistakably Canadian voice.
2. “Troika” from Lieutenant Kijé
Composed in 1934 for a Soviet satire about a fictional officer who never existed, Lieutenant Kijé is one of Prokofiev’s most colorful film scores. The word troika refers to a traditional Russian sleigh drawn by three horses abreast, a symbol of speed and winter travel. In this scene, the music follows the ghostly hero’s journey through a snow-covered landscape, blending humor with a distinctly Russian sense of melancholy.
3. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” — one of the best-selling jazz albums ever recorded
At first glance, it couldn’t be more different from Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, yet the two share an unlikely distinction: they are the highest-selling jazz albums of all time. Vince Guaraldi’s score for the 1965 TV special, recorded mostly in one three-hour session, blended gentle piano lines and brushed drums into something timeless. It wasn’t written to be holiday music, but it became inseparable from the sound of the season.