Bruce Jellyman and Brass Whanganui. At the Cleveland Funeral Home chapel, a hand-picked choir and a reduced version of Brass Whanganui, with compere Jonathon Greenwell, played and sang traditional Christmas carols while being livestreamed to the Rotary North page on Facebook. December 12, 2021.
Many Whanganui people will be familiar with the festive sounds of a brass band every Christmas, whether that be seeing them march in the Xmas Parade, performing as part of Carols by Candlelight, or of course, on the back of a truck making their way around town playing Christmas music
door to door.
This year they are doing all that plus their own Christmas Concert for the very first time.
For years, people have been asking the band to put on something, so Bruce Jellyman (musical director) and the team have taken the festive plunge and are putting on a concert entitled Christmas Magic, with generous sponsorship from Cleveland Funeral Home.
Audience members will be taken on a journey through centuries of Christmas music featuring everything from ancient and traditional carols, some of the greats from the Crooner era, and some nostalgic cinematic Christmas classics too, especially from that most famous of Christmas films, Home Alone.
The concert will also feature a friend of the band, Jamie Henare, in his first performance with them since he stole the show at The Last Night of the Proms in 2022.
