The Williamsport City Jazz Orchestra will perform their holiday concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 21 and 22 at the Community Theatre League, 100 W. Third St.
Following a sell-out audience last holiday season, the orchestra has added a second show and hopes for a repeat of high attendance at their two dates this year.
"Of course, we're always hopeful we will sell out," said Tim Breon, guitarist for the orchestra. "This year, we have two nights and it's a busy season. You never know how many people will go out, but we have our fingers crossed."
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The Williamsport City Jazz Orchestra will perform their holiday concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 21 and 22 at the Community Theatre League, 100 W. Third St.
The orchestra plans to entertain audiences this year with jazz tunes, big band arrangements of holiday favorites, and a few surprises thrown in.
"We are playing some challenging modern arrangements of standard Christmas carols and a few that aren't holiday related," said Dick Adams, lead tenor saxophonist for the orchestra. "I'm hoping the audience will enjoy the excitement and dig into the music. The first one went really well and I'm hoping we get that kind of energy going again."
The lineup of musicians performing in the concert include Kate Anderson, Thomas Outlen, Diana Bailey, Laura Garside and Adams on saxophones; Dale Orris, Eddie Severn, Jeff Chubb and Barry Long on trumpets; Breon on Guitar; Steve Adams on piano; Matt Radspinner on bass and Bobby Leidhecker on drums.
All of the musicians are professionals or students on their way to becoming professionals, so there was no need to begin rehearsing earlier in the season for the concert. Their first rehearsal was Nov. 29, Breon said.
Adams said he enjoys playing live concerts because of the excitement it generates for himself as well as the audience.
"There's an energy you can feel and you get it back from the audience," Adams said. "I know I'm doing well when I get shivers or goose bumps. It's not an automatic thing. Some people think you flip a switch and it's there, and it's not that way at all. I'm always very nervous before I go on to perform ... It's a wonderful feeling to play music well."
Adams said he played the clarinet in high school, but didn't get serious about music until he started playing rock 'n' roll guitar in college. College also was the first time he was introduced to jazz music from Phil Woods, who he later studied with for a short time. He then bought a saxophone from an ad he saw in the Sun-Gazette.
"It was a really great sound and pretty intricate stuff and it sounded very different from rock 'n' roll," Adams said. "I love both genres. So, I started investigating it. I took a summer semester at Berklee in Boston to learn theory and that got me started."
Breon started playing guitar when he was 8 years old and at 16 he jammed with his cousin Brian while on vacation and that is when he knew he wanted to be a serious musician.
His love of the jazz genre came later in junior high school while playing for his jazz band director, Don Griffith, who Breon said really cared about his students and the music that they were playing and inspired him to want to play.
Breon said he loves when his guitar and amp sound good in the hall and when he can see people enjoying the music that he is playing. He also enjoys talking to audience members following the shows.
"When I plug in my instrument and hear the sound, it's like magic to me," Breon said. "Sometimes I have some tough gigs, but that's just the business. I like being part of a team."
Both Breon and Adams said they enjoy being members of the orchestra because they get to play music with some of their best friends, as well as make new friends with others who join the group.
The Williamsport City Jazz Orchestra formed in June 2011.
They are a non-profit organization that performs and promotes big band music and jazz in Williamsport and the surrounding areas. They also act as an umbrella organization to offer educational opportunities for young musicians to learn about jazz and improvised music.
Tickets for the holiday concert are on sale now and are available online at ctlnet.org.
For more information about the Williamsport City Jazz Orchestra, visit www.wcjo.org.
