There are a couple of firsts for Donny Parenteau’s performance with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra Saturday night. The country music artist says it will be the first time he has played with a symphony, and it will also be his first time attending one. Parenteau explains that the only difference between a fiddle, which he plays, and a violin, which orchestras use, is the style in which it is played.

One of the songs he is doing is his an original Christmas song of his called I Love Christmas, which was recorded about 15 years ago. His daughter Julianna, who was about nine or ten months old at the time, was with him in the studio and her giggle is at the end of the song.

What Parenteau loves about the holidays is getting together with family and friends and being able to give. He remembers as a child waking up with his three siblings and there were four gifts under the tree, but they weren’t wrapped, so he asked his mom why. She told him they were from the Salvation Army and if they hadn’t supplied them, they wouldn’t have received any. He says, “I know what it’s like to be on that side so any chance I can give, and the best gift I can give anybody is the gift that I was given of music, and that’s why it means a lot to me, coming to do this show.”

The concert also includes the return of Garry Gable reading The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the University of Saskatchewan Chorus and Aurora Voce (vo chay).