Don’t let the title of the blog chase you away. I love the musical medium of the concert band. I love orchestra and chorus too, but the concert band was my first love as a young musician. I also want to take a break from dissenting. That’s hard work, this is just fun. For this little adventure I will share my band story.

I began my musical career as a guitarist. Then my teacher moved away, and the instrument gathered dust. A year or so later I was given the opportunity to join band. I wanted to play trombone. My parents discouraged that. I started on trumpet. My first horn was a $25 rummage sale cornet. My first new horn was an Olds Cornet with a silver nickel finish. I still have that instrument. I then went on to play euphonium, tuba, and then as an adult bass trombone. Yes, I was a heavy metal artist in the literal sense.

My early memories of band music are very scarce. In middle school my first solo was entitled Punchinello. The first band piece I marched to, was called Wild Walk. The only composer or arranger I remember from this time period was James Ployhar. He wrote or arranged music that fit our middle school band well. I ended up leaning on his literature with my first couple of middle school bands that I taught.

In high school, I marched, and marched, and marched some more. We did a fall competition season and a summer competitive season. I think we marched in the early Bands of America contests at UW-Whitewater. It’s all a blur really. The highlights for me were Winnipeg Manitoba’s Red River Festival and then marching at Soldier Field in Chicago. I remember a few arrangements that we marched. Carmina Burana, YYZ, New York Fantasy, Greatest Love of All, En Sveno, and Four Scottish Dances. Around my sophomore year in school I discovered sit-down band was my favorite type of band. I auditioned for the ILMEA all-state festival. I ended up playing for my future college band director twice at festivals.

Some of the greatest concert band music I had the privilege to experience as a high school student was at the festivals. The single most enjoyable concert band piece I played in high school was Prelude and Rondo by David Holsinger. Turns out I would work with him nearly 30 years later. In festival bands I got to experience Armenian Dances Part 1-Alfred Reed, Lincolnshire Posy-Percy Grainger, Victory at Sea-Richard Rogers/Bennett, William Byrd Suite-Gordon Jacob, Mayflower Overture-Ron Nelson, and many awesome marches. I had no intention of majoring in music until the end of my senior year.

During the summer after I graduated from high school, I started playing in two municipal bands. One was super serious, and my next door neighbor conducted it. He hired me when he heard me practicing Four Scottish Dances-Malcolm Arnold (for a festival) outside the house one day. It was the coolest experience to read over 100 band pieces of all different styles. This was my introduction to the great opera overtures transcribed for band. Morning. Noon, and Night in Vienna, Raymond, Nabucco, Marriage of Figaro, etc. The other band was a bit more laid back and fun. I ended up loving this band more as I grew into the role of young professional. I made so many friendships in this group. Eventually many years later I became that group’s conductor. We played a lot great medleys in that band. Warren Barker’s tasteful arrangements of broadway shows were a lot of fun to play and really accessible. Then there were the marches. SO MANY MARCHES!!! It took about eight years, but I finally fell in love with the march. Dr. Victor Markovich from Wichita State University I credit with reinvigorating the music making of the march form for me. His interpretation of His Honor-Henry Fillmore became my favorite march from his catalog.

College was a dreadfully amazing experience. It was a struggle for me academically and financially. I was not equipped emotionally or mature enough to handle college. I persisted, survived, and I received a great education. I also have a close bond with several musicians from my college career. I love them as my brothers to this day. My college band directors and orchestra conductors were very influential on my development. Countless number of great works crossed my stand. Festive Overture-Dmitri Shostakovich/Hunsberger, Symphony in B-flat-Hindemith, Skating on the Cheyenne-Finney, Concerto for Alto Saxophone-Dahl, Music for Prague-Husa, nearly everything written by Vincent Persichetti. Countless Grainger pieces, and one of my favorite Sousa marches, Bullets and Bayonets. I played in the orchestra for the Nutcracker and I auditioned for the concerto competition on the Vaughan-Williams Tuba Concerto. I wasn’t selected, because I really wasn’t that great. I’m glad I auditioned. It helped me grow. A high point was getting the opportunity to conduct both bands in my conducting classes. For my advanced conducting class I got to prepare Children’s March-Percy Grainger and Divertimento-Vincent Persichetti. The score study I put into those two pieces helped me develop my “vertical listening” philosophy.

The first fifteen years or so in my music career I worked on several skills. I wanted to be able to approach every piece I programmed as if it were the grandest symphony. The goal was to improve my conducting gestures, cueing, balance, intonation concepts, and understanding the physics of sound. I went to so many clinics and honor bands. I studied guest conductors at all of these stops. I bought extra scores to study. High points were programming the Military Symphony in F-Gossec, American Elegy-Ticheli, Chorale and Shaker Dance II-Zdechlik, and what I think is James Swearingen’s most musical work, The Light Eternal. Go ahead and laugh. Leroy Anderson has A Christmas Festival. Let James have a celebratory moment.

I played in the two municipal bands during this time, depending on where I lived. It was more sporadic, but I am thankful to have had some time with some amazing guest band conductors: Keith Brion, William Revelli, Victor Zajec, and the national treasure Colonel Arnold Gabriel. I even got to dabble in conducting musicals. That was a lot of fun, especially after playing in dozens of shows.

In 2007 I was hired to be the next conductor of the fun municipal band in Dixon, IL. I remember the moment like it was yesterday. I got the phone call just before band rehearsal that I had been hired. Then immediately after that phone call I was informed my then wife was in labor 9 weeks early with our first child. What a roller coaster day that was. Now that child is almost ready to graduate from high school. During my nine years or so as conductor I conducted nearly 1,000 pieces. We survived the Crundwell saga. We did a massive celebration for a famous politician from the area (with David Holsinger,) and I had a lot of fun programming as many different marches as possible. I was hired to conduct the local community college band and choir too. In 2015 I began some work toward a PhD in Music Education and this led to me having the opportunity to conduct one of the oldest New Horizon’s bands in the nation. I made a lot of great musical friendships during that time. It was fun introducing Italian Rhapsody-Julie Giroux to bandsmen who had first hand knowledge of those great melodies.

The pinnacle of my podium time was the chance to conduct Fantasia di Concerto-Boccalari with Dr. Brian Bowman as soloist in 2011. The second greatest thrill was conducting the complete Lincolnshire Posy in 2016. Dr. Bowman came to a rehearsal during that time. I’m forever grateful to have experienced the best seat in the house with arguably the greatest euphonium player of our time.

Following 2016 I made the move to Iowa permanently. I had a short stint as a band director at a small school and got the fun opportunity to conduct my last musical Young Frankenstein. What a blast this period was with such wonderful people. During the fall of 2019 tinnitus sprung out of no where. An E8 slightly flat. I went to a few doctor’s appointments and there was nothing to be done. The last band piece I conducted in rehearsal was Letter from Sado by Jodie Blackshaw. Then the pandemic struck, and my career as a band director ended. I had resigned just a week or so before the pandemic hit. I took a general music job in a larger city to finish my career with. This job has been rewarding in a completely different way. I miss band. I miss the music, but hearing issues are my new reality. I don’t miss the athletic band schedule though, lol. I still listen to band music on my laptop. I can’t just ignore 30+ years of collecting. I just have to listen to it at a softer volume to conflict less with the tinnitus. Live performances are quite a bit more difficult.

What is your favorite concert band piece? Or musical selection from your academic or professional career? Leave a comment, please!