UPDATE: The Vancouver Island Symphony’s Christmas Under the Big Tent concert series has been cancelled.
PREVIOUSLY POSTED: The Vancouver Island Symphony will be spreading Christmas cheer across the Nanaimo area this season.
From Dec. 6 to Dec. 13 the VIS’s Back Row Brass Quintet – trumpeters Stevan Paranosic and Mark D’Angelo, French horn player Karen Hough, trombonist Scott MacInnes and tuba player Nick Atkinson – are performing a series of small, outdoor concerts, dubbed Christmas Under the Big Tent.
VIS artistic director Pierre Simard said the ensemble will be performing a festive, holiday repertoire, noting that group leader Paranosic has performed Christmas concerts at Butchart Gardens for years.
“Brass and Christmas is sort of a natural pairing,” Simard said. “It goes almost without saying.”
He said the concert series builds on the success of this summer’s VIS Pop Up Concert Series, which saw symphony members perform small, outdoor concerts across the mid-Island from Saltair to the Comox Valley. Simard said those concerts nearly sold out.
Like those concerts, COVID-19 measures will once again be in place. Simard said the safety aspects have been “examined, re-examined and even upgraded.” Attendance will be limited to 50 audience members who may sit among their “bubbles,” masks are required upon entry and exit, there will be contact tracing at each venue and sanitized, socially distanced chairs will be provided. Audience members must not attend if they are sick or feeling unwell.
If the concerts end up being cancelled due to a change in COVID-19 regulations, audience members may request a ticket refund, a tax receipt for the value of their tickets or a ticket for the live-stream of the Dec. 4 Christmas and Brass concert.
“We’re sort of trying to make this a combination of safety first and also music first,” Simard said.
WHAT’S ON… Christmas Under the Big Tent concerts take place in Parksville on Dec. 6 at 1 and 3 p.m. and Lantzville from Dec. 11 to 13 at 1 and 3 p.m. Tickets $40, available at www.porttheatre.com.