High School band... yes, I remember, but it was not all bad. If I go back a few (almost 50) years, I remember that the best solution to high school band boredom was more rather than less. We had a good band director, but we were stuck with available arrangements that all of us could play. Unfortunately, Band was the only offering for instrumental performance in the regular schedule (had to have a marching band to support the athletic department) so we all volunteered to come to school early to have an Orchestra. Yes, love for music trumps adolescent sleepiness.
But the best chance for playing better music came from joining an outside Youth Band that recruited musicians from all the local high schools. I was very fortunate to be invited to join the San Fernando Valley Youth Band by my own high school's trumpet player (Russ Kidd who went on to a professional career). Our director was Claude Lakey (better known today for his reed mouthpieces) who had an extensive background in Big Bands. He wrote original arrangements for us that were challenging and musical. I will always remember him fondly. Our band was well represented in the All Southern California Youth Band and I remember playing in the Hollywood Bowl, but that was too short-lived and large to be very inspiring. During the summer, I attended the music program at San Fernando Valley State University in Northridge which was excellent. I also got to play with a newly formed group that called itself "The Los Angeles Symphonic Wind Ensemble". The director (Orbie Ingersoll) was young and very enthusiastic and we got to play the latest works from William Shuman (New England Triptych) and Walter Piston (Tunbridge Fair). There is good band music out there. I did not play principal in this group and have been curious what might have become of the best horn player in the area (Dan Havens). We had the same horn teacher (Gene Sherry) who was also his high school band director. Being a sympathetic teacher, he let him transpose clarinet and flute parts to put his boredom to good use. When I was going off to school, I heard that he had won a full scholarship to Juilliard. Later in college, I did get to avoid the band, but we were fortunate to have a Brass Choir that got to play not only the classical repertoire (think Gabrielli) but also had original Stan Kenton charts. The director (Dr. Faulkner) was a friend of Mr. Kenton's and we were invited to a rehearsal where I got to hear Vince DeRosa live and Mr. Kenton came up to rehearse us. For some reason, Mr. Kenton didn't think we came up to Mr. DeRosa's performance standards, but we were definitely not bored. I was not a music major and my studies eventually led me away from performance. But I have picked up the horn again after finding a good example of my original Reynold's Pottag model and have followed this list since. (Can we please have some other term for readers who don't post. Lurker sounds so sinister.) Well, I am getting old enough to enjoy my reminiscences and hope I have not bored the many serious and informative players on this list. _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
