Maghull Wind Orchestra - The Snowman with Live Orchestra

Maghull Wind Orchestra are at Oak Theatre and Studios on Saturday 5 December, with two performances that afternoon — one at 1.30pm and another at 4.00pm. The main event is a screening of Raymond Briggs' The Snowman, with Howard Blake's score performed live by the orchestra. Before that, they'll play a selection of Christmas favourites and festive classics, so the whole afternoon is built around the holiday season.

Maghull Wind Orchestra has been running for almost five decades, and they've built their reputation on a pretty open-door policy: 'Any Age. Any Ability. No Audition. No Fee.' It's a community band in the truest sense, bringing together musicians from several generations to put on ambitious projects. This one fits that mould — a full wind orchestra playing a score live to a big-screen animation is a fair bit of work, and it's exactly the kind of thing they've become known for.

Leading the afternoon is musical director Phil Shotton, a North of England jazz musician who plays saxophone and clarinet. He fronts several ensembles of his own — the Jake Leg Jug Band, the Cafe Society Trio, the Rhythmic Reeds, and the North West Duke Ellington Orchestra — as well as the 'Kind of Cool' Nonet, which plays the Birth of the Cool album in its original instrumentation and arrangements. He'll be conducting the orchestra through both the seasonal favourites and the live score.

The venue is Oak Theatre and Studios at Scarisbrick Hall, Southport Road, Scarisbrick, L40 9RQ. Tickets are £12.50 for adults and £8 for under 16s, with under 2s free if they sit on a parent or guardian's knee. With the 1.30pm and 4.00pm slots, you can pick the one that suits your afternoon best.