Vancouver Symphony Orchestra holiday show to share tunes, cheer

A great way to keep the COVID-19 pandemic from pitching you into a basement of doldrums is to hear the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s holiday concert, which will be livestreamed this weekend. The hometown orchestra under guest conductor Ken Selden has teamed up with jazz clarinetist Ken Peplowski and vocalist Clairdee to perform selections that include familiar Christmas tunes and jazzy holiday numbers.

Peplowski, who is based in New York City, has been the featured performer in a couple of galas for the orchestra. He has built a following in the Pacific Northwest because of his work with the Oregon Festival of American Music, the Siletz Bay Music Festival, and the jazz festival in Newport, Ore., where he is now the music director.

“I have arrangements of Christmas numbers that were written for me,” Peplowski said. “For this concert we will do an arrangement of ‘Sleigh Ride’ that will involve the orchestra, the rhythm section and me, and it will involve some, a little, improvisation too. We’ll play one of my favorite songs, ‘Christmastime is Here’ from ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ movie. It has a gorgeous haunting melody. Because things can get gloomy around that time of year, we will play an arrangement that I have for strings and rhythm section called ‘You Must Believe in Spring’ by Michel Legrand. I have the original arrangement for Nat King Cole on the ‘Christmas Song,’ which you’ll recognize as ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.’ We will play that at the end of the night and have the audience sing along at home. I have that one because I knew Nat’s brother Freddy and we passed arrangements back and forth over the years.”

Peplowski has an extra-cool factor because he worked with legendary clarinetist Benny Goodman. So, for the holiday concert, he will pay tribute to Goodman with a medley of songs that were arranged by Peter Knight for a Goodman performance with the Boston Pops Orchestra. The songs include “Poor Butterfly,” “The Man I Love,” “If I Had You,” “My Funny Valentine” and “Don’t Be That Way.”

One of Peplowski’s favorite vocalists, Clairdee, will also spread the warmth with several seasonal selections. They met on a jazz cruise in 2007 and have worked together ever since, even in far-away places like Edinburgh, Scotland. When she is not performing, Clairdee teaches jazz voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

With the orchestra, Clairdee will sing Irving Berlin’s “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep),” a samba-imbued arrangement of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine, and Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas.”

With Peplowski’s band, she will perform a set that includes “Let it Snow” by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne and “Winter Wonderland” by Felix Bernard and Dick Smith. They are available on her album “This Christmas,” which was released in 2002.

Clairdee has many fond memories of her musical family and girlhood in Denver.

“I grew up in a family that sang every day,” said Clairdee. “There were eight children. I’m number six in line. One of my older sisters played guitar and ukulele and the accordion. She would teach all of us little ones the songs. One of my first memories of singing with the family was when I was 4 years old. My sister would teach us enough Christmas music — around 15 minutes of songs — so we could go to convalescent homes and hospitals and sing to the elderly and patients. That’s when I caught the singing bug. I saw the way the music made people feel. I knew then that was what I wanted to do. And right now, we need all the music we can get.”

Ken Selden, who conducted the orchestra’s first livestream concert a few months ago, will be on the podium. The orchestra-only pieces are “Fantasia on Greensleeves” by Vaughan Williams (with harp), Leroy Anderson’s “Suite of Carols,” the Prelude to Grieg’s “Holberg Suite” and Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Pizzicato Polka.”

You can think of Selden as a ringmaster of sorts because the setup at Skyview Concert Hall might be a little crowded with orchestral strings and harp occupying the center part of the stage. Peplowski and the rhythm section (drums, piano, and bass) will have a separate area and Clairdee another. Plexiglass shields will help to delineate areas.

“I’m very grateful for any opportunity for live music-making at this time,” Selden said. “It is so important to maintain the process and tradition of creating music in real time and forging personal connections between musicians and listeners.”

“Hopefully we will feel the warmth of the audience in this concert,” added Peplowski, “even though we are staring at camera. The warmth will come through the ether.”