While it may not snow in Los Angeles, you can always feel (and hear!) when the holidays are near. Each winter, we gather at Walt Disney Concert Hall with family, friends, and loved ones in the community to spread a little holiday cheer during Deck the Hall. 

The 2026/27 season’s holiday concerts see three Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians in the spotlight as curators, soloists, or both. On December 1, Principal Trumpet Thomas Hooten and Associate Principal Trombone James Miller co-curate the Holiday Brass chamber music program, and from December 18 to 20, Hooten and Associate Principal Trumpet James Wilt share the stage for Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets in C major with Le Concert d’Astrée. 

Ahead of their performances, they revealed what makes these concerts special, what we can look forward to, and how they like to get into the holiday spirit.

James Miller, Associate Principal Trombone
Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen Chair 

Can you walk us through your curation process for Holiday Brass? How do you go about selecting the repertoire and setting the tone for the program? 

It’s actually a group effort between several of us in the ensemble. We are fortunate enough to work with RB Anthony, who will be playing French horn and also is a major resource for holiday brass music. We cull together works that feature various ensembles and soloists as well as great arrangers for brass ensemble. Overall, though, being fun to play and listen to is our goal. We are also fortunate to have Weicheng Zhao, who will be featured on some of his own arrangements for solo organ.   

What’s your favorite piece on the Holiday Brass program? 

Tough question! I have to say ’Twas the Night Before Christmas because we are able to work with our LA Phil President & CEO, Kim Noltemy, as guest narrator! 

What do you hope audiences will take away from this holiday concert? 

A smile on everyone’s face and a song in their hearts as they celebrate the holidays! 

What makes brass instruments well suited for holiday music?  

It’s obvious, isn’t it? We may be a touch biased, but nothing beats the glorious and joyful sounds of a great brass ensemble! 

How do you like to celebrate the holidays? Do you have any favorite traditions? 

I have a big family in Los Angeles and so does my wife. We love to see everyone together. So much fun! 

Thomas Hooten, Principal Trumpet
M. David and Diane Paul Chair 

What is your favorite part about the holidays? Do you have any traditions?  

Growing up as a brass player, we would always be involved in church services, and there’s tons of great music. It was a really great way for me, as a young player, to have professional experiences that weren’t in an orchestra or involved with auditions. I really grew fond of the sound of church organs with trumpets and other brass instruments. I actually started as a piano player, and in college, I took organ lessons. And so, for about 10 years, I was a church organist. My early memories of the holidays and music was always around church and brass playing. I kind of miss it because I don't do a lot of that anymore, so I'm really looking forward to this concert! 

What do you want people to take away from Holiday Brass at the Hall? What makes brass music suited for the holidays? 

The cool thing about it being on December 1, is that it’s like a fanfare for the season. Not to sound too cheesy, but it feels like we’re fully in this time of family, fellowship, and the memories of some of these traditional songs that maybe a lot of us grew up with.  

We’ll try to add some variety for the different ways that people celebrate the holidays to create a festive vibe for everyone. I think what we all want is for this to be a tradition that people can recognize as our calling card to the holidays.  

The trumpets of Vivaldi’s time are a little different from the ones we see and hear today. Can you tell us about the instrument you’ll be playing for these Baroque concerts? 

Originally, these pieces would have been played on natural trumpets, which wouldn’t have had valves. It’s a beautiful sound, but it’s very difficult to capture with modern-day accuracy or refinement. There are people that do it, but they’re real specialists.

We're going to be playing these on G trumpets, which I don't think Jim and I have ever played in this setting, so this is a new thing for us!

They’re smaller trumpets that help us convey the brilliance and energy of this uplifting piece. I wouldn’t say it’s a very complicated piece, but a very celebratory kind of vibe.

How is it different being a soloist versus just being one of the many trumpets in the orchestra?  

One of the biggest things I noticed is that usually when I’m in the “back of the classroom,” sitting there at the back of the ensemble, I don’t get the full sound of the orchestra. I only hear the percussion and my colleagues next to me. So, when I get out to the front, it’s kind of like a gut check because you experience the full power of the orchestra as if you were right in the front row. I hear much more of the strings and woodwinds, and I feel the totality of the brass! It’s kind of…terrifying, but in an exciting way. To have that “front-row” seat is a good, challenging experience. 

What’s your favorite part of the Vivaldi concerto? Are there any special moments or aspects of the music that we should pay close attention to?  

The piece is famous for the two trumpets having the same music but offset by a bar or half a bar. It creates this cool, old-school stereo effect where you’re not sure which part is coming from which trumpet player. 

You have this motif by the person playing the first, and then it’s immediately repeated a bar later by the second player. In a way, you get this kind of call-and-response. Hopefully, it’ll sound interesting, given the acoustics in our space!  

James Wilt, Associate Principal Trumpet

Can you briefly describe Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets? What makes it a compelling piece to perform? 

The Vivaldi is something of a rarity in the orchestral repertoire because there are only a handful of concertos written for two trumpets. It’s a brilliant, concise example of an Italian Baroque concerto, with the traditional fast-slow-fast structure, although the trumpets get to take a breather during the slow movement! 

What makes it so much fun is the sheer amount of musical invention packed into such a short piece. There are brilliant fanfares, rapid flourishes, musical phrases that echo and imitate one another, and a constant back-and-forth between the two trumpets. It’s lively, playful, and full of surprises. 

The trumpets of Vivaldi’s time are a little different from the ones we see and hear today. Can you tell us about the instrument you’ll be playing for these Baroque concerts? 

Trumpets in Vivaldi’s time didn't have valves, which meant players could only produce the notes available naturally on a single length of tubing. In the lower register, there are big gaps between those notes. As you played higher, the notes get closer and closer together, eventually allowing you to play melodies that moved in stepwise fashion. But that also meant the notes were so close together that it was very easy to hit the wrong one! 

The Baroque trumpet in C was roughly eight feet long, with the tubing coiled to make it manageable. By comparison, the modern G trumpets we’re using are much smaller, with tubing just over two feet long. Thanks to their valves, we essentially have seven different lengths of tubing available, giving us access to notes that simply weren’t possible on the old instruments.  

The interesting thing is that while Vivaldi’s trumpet players had to perform this music in the very high register of their instruments, we’re playing those same pitches in the low to middle register of ours. That gives us a little more room between the notes and makes it less likely that we’ll accidentally land on the wrong one. It’s still plenty challenging, but we have some advantages Vivaldi’s players could only have dreamed of! 

How would you describe the relationship between the two trumpets and the orchestra? What are you looking forward to about performing this with your colleague? 

There’s a wonderful conversational quality to the relationship between the trumpets and the orchestra. Vivaldi uses a form called ritornello, where the orchestra returns to familiar musical ideas between passages featuring the soloists. It’s more cooperative than confrontational. The orchestra provides the foundation, the steak, and we’re the sizzle, so to speak! That fits the stereotypically flashy character of the trumpet perfectly. 

I’m especially looking forward to the challenge of matching Tom’s sound, articulation, and virtuosity. He’s such a great player, and performing alongside him pushes me to listen more carefully and be a more sensitive musician. There are playful “anything you can do, I can do better” aspects that segue straight into ensemble passages in which we are each on equal footing. 

Are there any special moments or aspects of the concerto that we should pay close attention to? 

There’s an incredible amount happening in this piece, right from the opening. We start together in harmony, immediately move into a passage where one trumpet imitates the other, and then the orchestra makes a statement that the trumpets answer. And that’s all within the first 20 seconds! 

One of the most enjoyable things to listen for is how constantly our roles change. Sometimes I’m playing the supporting harmony while Tom has the more prominent line, and then we switch. We each get little moments to shine individually, but so much of the fun comes from the way we play off one another. 

It’s a short, virtuosic piece, and Vivaldi manages to pack an extraordinary amount of playful musical conversation into just a few minutes.