Fairfield Municipal Band to hold Holiday Concert Dec. 19

FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Municipal Band will hold its annual Holiday Concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.

The All-Star Jazz Band will perform first, and its set will last until about 7:45 p.m. The municipal band will take the stage at 8 p.m.

The event is a free-will donation, with proceeds going toward the FACC. Fairfield Municipal Band Director Jim Edgeton will direct most of the pieces, and he’ll be joined by guest conductor Tyler Nunziato, the new Fairfield High School Band Director.

The Fairfield Municipal Band performs about six times over the summer from late June into early August, so this concert on Dec. 19 will be the band’s first in several months. In the summer, the group rehearses on Monday and plays a concert on Tuesday, but Edgeton said the group is holding three rehearsals to prepare for this concert. He said that’s partly to accommodate the busy schedules of its band members but also because the music for this one will be a little bit harder.

“When we’re outside in the park, we can get away with a lot of things because cars and trucks are driving by, and people are listening to the music differently,” Edgeton said. “For this concert, we want to raise the bar, raise our performance level to be the best we can.”

Band members are instructed to wear festive clothing for the event.

“Everybody gets into it with reds and greens,” Edgeton said. “For sweaters, the uglier the better.”

Edgeton said that he tries to avoid being repetitive for holiday concerts, which is an easy pit to fall into.

“Holiday concerts are difficult to program because there are the Top 10 Christmas carols, and everybody sings those same Top 10,” he said. “I like to find new things, like exploring some ancient Christmas carols, or finding them from other countries.”

Edgeton said his band plays a mixture of sacred pieces, such as We Three Kings, and secular pieces, like Up on the Housetop and Jingle Bells.

The idea for a municipal band concert in December began about eight years ago when former FACC Executive Director Rustin Lippincott allowed the band to practice in the arts center. Before then, the band had hopped around town, practicing wherever it could, in churches, the basement of First National Bank, and Fairfield High School.

Band members asked Edgeton if they could play some holiday tunes. Edgeton didn’t like the idea of doing a “Christmas in July” concert, so he and the band decided to hold a concert in December. Then, as a way of saying thank you to the arts center for hosting the band’s practices, all proceeds from the concert would go to the FACC.

The band had to suspend its holiday concert due to COVID, but Edgeton talked to FACC Executive Director Lindsay Bauer, and they agreed to resume the concerts in 2021. He said he’s glad to have such a great relationship with the town’s premier performing arts center.

“Each year, we make $400-$500 from donations. That covers our rent, you might say,” Edgeton said. “And the band members who play are strictly volunteers. There’s no money involved for them. They do it for the joy of playing.”

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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