We Wish You A Merry

Quintet debuts with holiday show Thursday in Fayetteville

A little bit of everything happens at Stage Eighteen in Fayetteville — art, music, you name it. On Thursday, that repertoire expands once again to include a classical quintet playing “all traditional Christmas pieces — all recognizable, although some pieces have a fun little musical twist to them.”

Janice Bengtson is one of the founding members of the Ozark Wind Quintet, which will be making its debut at Stage Eighteen.

“We met as players with the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra,” she explains. “Everyone in the group has had extensive professional performing experience, in addition to the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra including SONA, local musical theater groups, University of Arkansas groups, and I’ve even spent 20 years performing with the U.S. Air Force Band.

“We just started rehearsing together this fall and decided that a Christmas concert for the community would be fun for everyone involved and a great way to ‘kick off’ our first performance,” she adds. “As it turned out, we were brainstorming where to perform during a break with the Arkansas Philharmonic and standing next to us was harpist Anna Cooney, and she informed us her cousins owned Stage Eighteen. We knew from being there for other performances that it would be a great venue for us.”

Performing with Bengtson will be Sarah Johnson on flute, Andrew Baker on oboe, Peter Hamby on horn and Kay Brusca on bassoon.

Free tickets are available for in-person pick up at the Events Fayetteville office on the square, Bengtson adds. Doors will open from 5:45 to 5:55 p.m. Thursday for ticketholders, then at 5:55 p.m. for those without tickets.