'Christmas Brasstacular' opens River City Brass online concert season

The emotional impact of not being able to play together during the pandemic didn’t hit members of River City Brass until they finally gathered to rehearse and record their upcoming online concert season.

“We hadn’t played since March. For us to come together was very overwhelming,” said artistic director and conductor James Gourlay. “Maybe we had taken that for granted, but we’ll never take it for granted again.”

The Pittsburgh-based ensemble will open its 2020-21 virtual season with its annual “Christmas Brasstacular,” recorded at The Palace Theatre in Greensburg and streaming at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

“It will be a very typical River City Brass performance,” Gourlay said. “Christmas is Christmas, and people want that mix of fun, frolic and carols.”

Although the seats of the theater will be empty, accommodations still had to be made for the safety of the musicians, Gourlay said.

Instead of a full complement of 28 players, only 18 will take part in the Christmas concert to provide for social distancing. Because brass instruments are classified as aerosol spreaders, the bells had to be covered. Musicians also emptied their spit valves onto disposable puppy training pads.

“I’ve been buying them in bulk at my local Rite Aid,” Gourlay said. “The clerk there asked me, ‘How is your kennel business going?’ ”

Restrictions notwithstanding, at the first rehearsal, Gourlay said, “There was so much energy, you could have put up a wire and lit up the whole city of Greensburg with it. To have the whole group together was very emotional.”

Being back in The Palace provided part of that energy.

“The Palace Theatre staff has been so incredibly helpful to us,” he said. “We have several decades of history with them. (The Westmoreland Cultural Trust) is like family to us.”

Following dates on the 2020-21 schedule also will stream at 7:30 p.m. All recorded at The Palace, those concerts will include:

• Broadway Brass, Jan. 2 — Vocalists Katy Shackleton Williams and Rich Williams will join the band for a program of hits and classics from the Great White Way.

• Sounds of the ‘60s, Feb. 20 — Doo wop, R&B, Motown and classic rock offerings will run the gamut from “Unchained Melody” and “It’s Now or Never” to “The Sunshine of Your Love” and “Hotel California.”

• Celtic Connections V, March 20 — Members of the Carnegie Mellon Pipes and Drums will join in presenting music crossing the ocean from Ireland, Wales and Scotland to Appalachia and the American South.

• Rhapsody in Blue, April 10 — Highlights of the Roaring ‘20s jazz age will feature music from composers such as George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Cole Porter.

• Americana, May 8 — A program designed to underscore what unites the country will feature selections like “America the Beautiful,” “This Land is Your Land” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

• Dancing Through Time, June 5 — A program surveying the history of dance music, including ballet, waltz, polka, rock n’ roll, jazz and disco.

A digital ticket is $25 per date; a season subscription is $150. To order, visit rivercitybrass.org.

River City Brass has carried on the brass band tradition since its 1981 debut. Its concert themes carry over from year to year, Gourlay said: “People like the themes, so we don’t change the themes that much; but we do find ways to be creative within them.”

Members have presented online solo concerts during the pandemic, which have been so popular that Gourlay sees an online concert component continuing even after live audiences return.

An internationally recognized tuba player, Gourlay said that 700 people logged into a solo show he performed.

“For a tuba player, that’s incredible,” he said. “Usually, a tuba player would empty the room.”