Sturgeon concert offers winter treat

Romping music and madcap movies are the big feature at this year’s Sturgeon Composite High School Winter Concert at the Arden Theatre on Tuesday, Dec. 7.

Taking an innovative turn, director Darwin Krips decided to screen the 1922 film Cops. This Buster Keaton 16-minute short is of a young man who accidentally gets on the bad side of the police during a parade and is chased all over town.

As the film is running, the 64-member concert band, one of four groups to perform, will accompany the film.

“The kids had done a silent movie project several years ago. I looked on the Internet and stumbled on Ben Model. He’s a silent film accompanist for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He’s written three scores of silent films for concert bands,” says Krips.

The big challenge is to play the metronome and the score in 16 minutes at the exact points matching the film. “It’s a big project, but they have embraced it and done a great job.”

This year, Sturgeon’s 70-man concert choir is a featured performer at the The Singing Christmas Tree, Dec. 17 to 19. At the Arden, the 70-odd youth voices will sing It’s the Most Wonderful Time of Year and a Jingle Bell medley, an appetizer to the grander show later in the month.

And the 18-member vocal jazz ensemble whips out Down at Smokey Joe’s, an old blues standard and Fields of Gold, a number popularized by Sting that features a jazz arrangement.

The 18-piece jazz band really gets cooking with two great swing tunes, It Is What It Is and One For Ernie followed by Hop It Up, a number with a Louisiana second line street beat. “It’s a very syncopated chart and in the middle you feel like you’re in a Louisiana street parade.”

“In this concert, you get a bit of everything. You go to the movies. You get a singing Christmas tree teaser and you get some fine jazz.”

Concert starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5. Reserve at 780-973-3301 or at the door.