A bassoon that thinks it's a donkey is just one of the musical delights featuring in A Christmas Cracker, Bay of Plenty Symphonia and Tauranga Civic Choir's combined Christmas concert.
The concert, at Baycourt on Sunday, December 13 at 3pm, will feature favourite Christmas carols, and chances for the audience to sing along.

Oscar Laven and David Guy prepare for their roles as donkey and narrator. Photo by Bruce Barnard.

One of the works features narrator David Guy telling the story of composer John Rutter's carol In Dulci Jubilo. The musical voice of Sigismund, the donkey in this piece, will be provided by bassoon, played by Oscar Laven.
BOP Symphonia was established in 2005 and was formed out of the Tauranga Concert Orchestra. It performs three concerts a year, one purely classical and the other two with more popular and well-known content. Encouraging student musicians is a key part of its role and this concert features talented 12 year olds violinist Janet Reid and cellist Dominic Lee, among others.
The Tauranga Civic Choir began as a women's group, Cantabile Singers, in 1961. Today it has more than 60 members of both sexes. In 2003 the choir won the silver award in the NZ Choral Federation's national Classic Sing competition.
This concert, directed by Jeremy Whimster, will provide a light, entertaining afternoon of Christmas music and song with wide appeal to families and concert-goers of all ages.