Cochrane’s Martin Russell and his friends are bringing their much-anticipated Christmas Concert to St. Andrews Untied Church on Saturday, Dec.7 at 7 pm.
As always, Russell’s love of music comes through whenever he talks about his favourite subject.
“All I can say is I'm blessed to be here. I say this every year, but the enthusiasm from the musicians, and brand new musicians,” he said. “I was approached by a young lady in a wheelchair and she's singing and I'm an accompanying her. And she asked me if she could be part of the Christmas concert. The positiveness that it creates, I mean they call it Martin's concert, but I do very little on the whole,” he said.
The concert is free but organizers are asking people to bring a non-perishable food item for the on-site food bank shed that Helping Hands operates year round.
Martin’s concert keeps getting bigger and better. This year at least 20 musicians are playing. Russell said twenty years ago there would be maybe 20 or 30 people in the audience, but word of mouth has changed all that.
“We've had a nice intermission at half time for the last two years, it's been standing room only. And the intermission has gone on for 45, 50 minutes. So we're going to have the concert, a short intermission, and then at the end of the concert, we're going to have a fellowship time where there will be cookies and drinks and have a chat after the concert,” he said.
Russell promises an eclectic mix of musical styles, sampling everything from Celtic to classical. There will be one style he suspects won’t make the cut though, even from one of the younger musicians joining the group for the first time.
“I'll be very surprised if I hear Kevin singing Taylor Swift,” he laughed.
“I'm playing a lovely classical version of Ave Maria, and I know that there's going to be some very funny comedic moments in there as well,” Russell added.
St Andrew’s United Church is at 128 First Street East in Cochrane.
