The Oak Ridge Community Orchestra is pictured above in a September 2014 Concert. (Photo by Ellen Greenwood)

By Dale Gedcke

A free concert by the Oak Ridge Community Orchestra at 2 p.m. Saturday, December 6, will feature the “Emperor (Kaiser) Waltzes” by Johann Strauss Jr., the “Cinderella Suite No. 1” by Prokofiev, the “Radetzky March” by Johann Strauss Sr., and “A Christmas Festival” by Leroy Anderson. This is an exciting program that you will not want to miss.

In 1950, Leroy Anderson wrote “A Christmas Festival” to be performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra. Ever since, it has been a popular favorite of audiences and orchestras. Somehow, Anderson was able to weave all the famous Christmas carols into a progressive collage of color. The startling opening begins with “Deck the Halls,” and continues with the quieter carols in the middle of the suite. In the finalé, Anderson shows his compositional ingenuity with a raucous variation on “Jingle Bells” that is briefly interrupted by the climax of “O, Come All Ye Faithful,” before rushing to an exciting conclusion with a confluence of “Joy to the World” and the “Jingle Bells” variation. [Read more…]