The Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps, our community's band, kicked off the holidays in style with a festive concert, billed as "Portrait of a Season: a Musical Tapestry," in the spacious auditorium of the Julia Richman Complex, on East 67th Street, on December 1. The performance featured a welcome guest appearance by the Empire City Men's Chorus, formerly the Gay Gotham Chorus. The Corps, in turn, will pay a visit to the chorus at its December 7 concert, "A Season of Miracles," at the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew, on West 86th Street, where the ensemble is in residence.

For a lively prelude to the concert, Corps Artistic Director Brian P. Worsdale and his band promised us "lovely weather for a sleighride together," before ringingly evoking the tintinnabulation of the Ukrainian "Carol of the Bells," in Sean O'Loughlin's arrangement. The players brought the English countryside, long ago, to mind musically with a sweeping "Fantasia on 'Greensleeves'," by Ralph Vaughan Williams, arranged by Robert W. Smith for his "Vaughan Williams Suite," and limned a rollicking "Midnight Sleighride," written by Sergei Prokofiev for the film "Lieutenant Kijé."

Turning to music of the present decade, the Corps observed World AIDS Day with a slide show, prepared by 28-year band veteran and charter member, clarinetist Joe Avena, recalling the group's history and remembering its losses, with the visuals accompanied by Eric Whitacre's lyrical, nostalgic-sounding "October." One historic 2001 shot showed the band with the World Trade towers in the background. A standing ovation followed the tribute. In Philip Sparke's "Portrait of a City," outer movements "Skyline" and "Downtown," depicting London's joyous hustle and bustle, framed a wistful "In Autumn," reflecting either yearning loneliness or blissful peace and solitude.

Empire City choristers and a small Corps ensemble, led by choral conductor Jonathan Babcock, collaborated on Daniel Pinkham's Renaissance music-influenced "A Christmas Cantata." Capping its "Quem vidisti pastores?" an emphatic statement about the miraculous birth the shepherds witnessed, and "O Magnum Mysterium," a hushed and awed response to the great mystical occurrence, was a bouncy, exultant "Gloria in excelsis Deo," with both opening and closing movements concluding with cries of "Alleluja!" The singers also joined the band for Leroy Anderson's "Christmas Festival," a mellifluous medley of traditional carols "Joy to the World," "Deck the Hall," "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," "Good King Wenceslas," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Silent Night," "Jingle Bells" and "O Come, All Ye Faithful."

In Alfred Reed's transcription of the prelude to Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel und Gretel," due for revival by the Metropolitan Opera in a new production on December 24, the Big Apple Corps offered vivid, Wagner-influenced portraits of the children, the 14 vigilant angels of their evening prayer, and their nemesis, the witch, culminating in their triumph over her. The band probed Allan Silvestri's music for the film fantasy "Polar Express," in Jerry Brubaker's arrangement, and saluted the Festival of Lights with a reverent, then spirited "The Eighth Candle: Prayer and Dance for Chanukah," by Steve Reisteter.

In Anderson's brisk "The Typewriter," arranged by Floyd Werle, percussionist Leslie Regina Becker played the eponymous 'qwerty' keyboard, with section colleagues Andrew Berman and Scott Still assisting, respectively, on carriage return and end of a line bell. Becker was then presented with a plaque in honor of her 20 years of service to the Corps. A medley of selections from Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's "Hairspray," as arranged by Ted Ricketts, concluded the concert and included "Good Morning Baltimore," "The Nicest Kids in Town," "Run and Tell That!" "I Know Where I've Been," "The Big Dollhouse" and "You Can't Stop the Beat."

The encore was an audience sing-along of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," "Silver Bells," "Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," with Marita Begley conducting the band and Worsdale leading the audience and, in front of the audience, just before mounting the podium, Begley proposed to and was accepted by her girlfriend and clarinetist colleague, Ana Del Campo.