You know those Christmas songs where the melody sounds familiar but you can't quite hum the whole tune?
Next week, Place des Arts' harp instructor Rebecca Blair will shed some light on those untraditional holiday pieces as part of the Maillardville centre's Brighten Up! celebrations.
Blair will be joined by former harp students Judy Henry and Leanne Page, a soprano - as well as fiddler Rosie Carver and young musician Connor Page - for her Green Grows the Holly concert on Nov. 30.
Blair said she has picked "a huge variety of Christmas music" for the program, spanning from the Middle Ages (Christ Child's Lullaby in Gaelic) to the 20th century (Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas).
In between, the fivesome will offer Drive the Cold Winter Away, Christmas Day In da' Mornin', Up on the Housetop, Loreena McKennitt's Snow and A La Nanita Nana, a Hispanic song. "This won't be a stayed concert," Blair said. "There'll be different arrangements and improv... Something to keep everyone's toes tapping."
A Place des Arts' instructor for a decade, Blair started her musical studies on the clarinet. After earning her master's degree in performance and musicology from UVIC in 1996, she turned her focus to the harp and Celtic music. Today, she plays with groups such as the Maenads and Triskelion, the latter of which Carver is also a member.
Tickets at $15/$13 for Green Grows the Holly on Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. are available by calling Place des Arts 604-664-1636 or visiting placedesarts.ca. Blair will also perform All in a Garden Green, a faculty concert next April at Place des Arts. Meanwhile, Brighten Up! will continue on Saturday, Dec. 7 with an annual all-ages event called A Lantern Affair.
