{"id":6,"date":"2011-09-13T05:28:43","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T05:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/?page_id=6"},"modified":"2025-09-20T15:55:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T15:55:46","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/?page_id=6","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"San Jose Saxophone Christmas began in 1994 <\/strong>when\u00a0our founder, musical director, arranger, and saxophonist Ray Bernd gathered together a handful of players to perform in San Jose, California. A musical tradition was born.<\/p>\n

Each year the San Jose event attracts some 200 saxophonists from all over California and beyond! \u00a0Our two free concerts in public spaces are enjoyed by hundreds of people, many of whom consider this annual event a highlight of the holiday season.<\/p>\n

While most players perform on Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Baritone Saxes, the event also features some of the more unusual and lesser known Saxophones, including Soprillo, Sopranino, C Soprano, Saxello, C Melody, Bass, and even Contrabass Saxes. \u00a0We even invite Sarussophone players to come join us! If you don\u2019t know what they are, search it out on the internet. Ray\u2019s arrangements include as many as 12 separate parts, allowing Saxes of all sizes and shapes to show off their holiday chops<\/p>\n

Our high water mark for players came last year (2024) for both events. We had 75 players for our Sacramento event, and 240 for our San Jose performance! It is Ray’s observation and research that out San Jose event is the “Largest, annual gathering of Saxophones” found anywhere in the world. If you have not heard\/seen a large Saxophone Ensemble before in person, either of these events should be on your ‘to do’ list in the near future.”<\/p>\n

In 2010, Ray organized the first-ever Sacramento Saxophone Christmas<\/strong>. We started with 33 players, and hope that this tradition too will grow.<\/p>\n

For more information about the event, contact<\/p>\n

Ray Bernd<\/a>, Founder and Director
\nSan Jose Saxophone Christmas AND Sacramento Saxophone Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Jose Saxophone Christmas began in 1994 when\u00a0our founder, musical director, arranger, and saxophonist Ray Bernd gathered together a handful of players to perform in San Jose, California. A musical tradition was born. Each year the San Jose event attracts some 200 saxophonists from all over California and beyond! \u00a0Our two free concerts in public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3900,"href":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/3900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjsaxmas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}