The North Coast Symphonic Band is bigger and better than ever, and so is this year’s “A North Coast Christmas” concert. Presented in conjunction with the Liberty Theater, the program brings together the NCSB and three choral groups: the North Coast Chorale, the Cannon Beach Chorus and Astoria High School’s Port City Singers. Vocalists Genevieve and Keith Butenshon will also perform, as will the Astoria Tuba Quartet and the Northern Lights Flute Ensemble. Adding to the Christmas decorations will be the Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival’s Sankta Lucia, Megan Davis, and her court.

“We’ve selected very familiar music that would have wide appeal for everyone,” says band director Dave Becker. “Sacred and secular Christmas music makes up the bulk of the program, but Hanukkah and Kwanza selections will be included, too.” As to the reason for combining the NCSB with so many choral groups, he says, “For many families, this is time of year where we most often join our voices in song. That is true for instrumentalists, too; so it makes sense to have lots of singing in our concert.”

In its 35th year, the NCSB attracts musicians from as far north as Tacoma, as well as from Portland, Garibaldi and points in between. The band has grown not only in size, but also in quality and inventiveness.

Lee Stromquist, a retired Astoria music educator, has been with NCSB since the beginning, when it grew out of the Clatsop Community College orchestra program, which he taught. “We struggled for many years with 30 to 35 players,” he says. “Now there are 45 to 50.” He also notes that Becker, formerly the director of bands at Lewis and Clark College, “is a well-known band director and musical educator. We’re very fortunate to have him. He’s brought the band to a whole new level.”

Stromquist says the NCSB provides him with, “an opportunity to play both my instruments, tuba and trombone, and it’s my social life as well. Many of my closest friends are in the band.”

The social aspect is important, too, because, “we get all kinds of people.” Like Mike Evans, a trumpet player who retired to Garibaldi. He was the chief of detectives at the Vancouver, Washington, Police Department and once toured with the Glen Miller Band.

Not that the NCSB is composed only of the retired. The most recent member of the band is a young woman from South Korea, and the youngest member of the band is a high school student.

The oldest band member is 84 and looks considerably younger. Bob Joiner is a retired music educator and jazz musician, who literally joined the band the first day he moved to Astoria in 1994. “I went to Thiel’s Music,” he recalls, “and asked, ‘what’s happening here musically?’” He was told about the NCSB, and that they were rehearsing that very night at the high school. “I went over there and met everybody. I had a good time, and after the first week I was pretty well connected here musically.”

Joiner says he, “plays a lot of instruments, but I prefer low brass: trombone, euphonium and tuba.” (He and Stromquist also play in the Astoria Tuba Quartet featured in the Christmas program). Joiner notes that band members write many of the arrangements the NCSB plays, and he characterizes the music of the band as “music you can’t dance to, but it’s fun to listen to. The band is pretty doggone good, and I’ve played in a lot of bands.”

Flutist Bona Choi has also played in a number of musical groups in her native South Korea, but the NCSB is her first foray into the local musical scene. “I love to play the flute,” says Choi, who began playing her instrument at the age of 9. She has bachelor’s degrees in both flute and vocal, and a master’s in music education. For 10 years she, “spent shining days” performing in South Korea, Japan, and Singapore as a soprano with a choir and as a flutist with the Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra.

Choi joined the NCSB almost immediately after arriving in Astoria with her husband and daughter. As a new mother, she explains, “I haven’t been able to play the flute for several years, and I really appreciate that I could join the NCSB. They have a varied repertoire, and I enjoy all the activity in the NCSB. I love that we try to communicate with audiences with music every performance.” Choi says her English has improved with the help of orchestra members and, “Dave Becker and others help me to play with a comfortable and warm mood.”

Becker says this Christmas program will be a “fast-paced eclectic celebration of the season. We will present a collage of music ranging from vocal soloists, small chamber groups, vocal jazz, large-scale band favorites, moving choral works and audience sing-alongs — such as the Hallelujah Chorus.”

Or as Bona Choi puts it, “I am sure there will be good memories about Christmas for me and you. It will be a great time for you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!”