(Havre) – With famous pianist Phillip Aaberg coming to Havre on December 17th to perform a concert with the Havre High School chorus and band New Media Broadcasters sat down with Aaberg to talk about what inspired the Christmas show.
“I’ve been doing Christmas concerts for a really long time and there were times when I was doing Christmas concerts basically from Halloween to Valentines Day. So, I’ve done a lot of those and of course whenever I thought about Christmas it’s about my childhood in Chester and on the hi-line, Christmas on the Hi-line, and that’s what comes to me now. so, the opportunity to play in Havre, where I took piano lessons as a kid, is such a great thing to me. It’s such a return to home and I always love playing for the people of Havre. This time were going to be having special guests. we’re going to be having the Havre High School band and chorus come in and they’re each going to do two songs with me. I’m pretty much not soloing with them I’m kinda like a part of the band so it’s going to be great fun to have them. the band is doing a couple of sledding songs, toboggan and sleigh ride, and the chorus is going to do two beautiful songs, Northern lights and then a Christmas carol that I used in one of my pieces called Christmas on the Hi-line.”
We also asked what it’s like to work with the Havre High School chorus and band.
“Well, you know, there’s such a great musical tradition in Havre going way, way back they’ve always had great bands, great musicians, great teachers and you can see that from the auditorium which is a fine facility and a great place to go here and concert. You know, I got concerts right up till when I come down to Havre so these kids are going to be like professionals. They’re going to have all this stuff ready all I have to do is run through it once with them and get going and I know what they sound like I worked with them last year. I came in to do a concert last year and I got to work with the band particularly so just looking forward to just working with this great talent this young talent these kids go on to do a lot of stuff. Havre has had a lot of tremendous musicians the foremost one right now is Eric Funk who runs 11th and Grant which is a big music show on Montana Public Television and he went to school in Havre.”
