The Christmas-y duo of seniors Brendan Carr and Carter Fortman, otherwise known as Santa’s elves, played and recorded a mallet duet of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”—another example of the tremendous work that the band program has done to overcome the challenges of the pandemic and make this Christmas season special.

The recording, now posted on YouTube, has garnered over 248 views, including by people from as far away as the Bahamas.

“The video performance featuring Brendan and Carter was a way to offer a unique performance opportunity for these seniors, considering that much of our normal opportunities had been cancelled due to Covid protocols,” said assistant band director Dan Faris, who worked with Carr and Fortman on piece. “This video performance of seasonal music seemed like a tailor-made chance for these students to share their efforts as musicians with the larger SLUH community.”

In order to give the two a challenge, Faris assigned Carr and Fortman to work on this festival duet in hopes that they would continue to develop as musicians.

“This was part of a larger duo project that I had created in response to the lack of performance opportunities for my students—both at SLUH and elsewhere,” said Faris. “I had a collection of cleverly arranged Christmas duets that I have always wanted to share and this year's situation presented itself as a way to so.”

“I did this for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to develop as a musician. Brendan is a great player and I knew I could learn a lot from playing with him. Secondly, I knew my mom, as a Christmas fanatic, would love to have this video to get her in the Christmas spirit, especially with the pandemic robbing her from her last Christmas Band Concert.”

Carter Fortman 

The recording, which was published on YouTube on Nov. 24 over break, was a result of a lot of rehearsing for a month beforehand and could not have been possible without a lot effort and self-discipline.

“After selecting the arrangement, I shared the concept with Brendan and Carter and gave them a month to review the music before taking a few moments at the beginning of our weekly class to rehearse,” said Faris. “However, the success of this effort was in the work ethic of the students.” 

“Brendan is obviously a better percussionist than me, and it became pretty apparent when he could play both his part and mine by like the second week of practice while I was still struggling with the first few measures,” said Fortman. “Mr. Faris offered to cut it and that it would be no big deal but I couldn’t let that happen. I wanted to do this.” 

For Faris, it was the preparation and not the performance itself that struck him the most, particularly the final moments of preparation leading up to the recording.

“The final moments of preparing a performance with students is always reaffirming to me—as an educator and musician—as to the power of music,” said Faris. “Even with music as relatively straight-forward as the duet that Brendan and Carter prepared, their attention to working out the details and the final musical expression was very gratifying to see and hear. Most importantly, their growth through this process will stay with them as they continue to move through life as musicians, students, and people.”