Amherst band commemorates town anniversary
By MELANIE PLENDA, Correspondent
Published: Thursday, July 14, 2011
Note: this article
is reprinted with permission from the Nashua Telegraph of Nashua,
N.H. All rights reserved, Nashua Telegraph
AMHERST – Fanfare, big and brassy, is meant to bring you in, get your
attention. Once they have you, each musician in the Amherst Town Band
plays hello and tells his or her unique story. They reminisce in the
middle, the woodwinds calling out the memories of old times. In the
end, each player weaves his or way back to the group, back to the song,
back to their purpose.
“They come together in one big conglomerate at the end to push that
last thing,” said composer and Amherst Town Band member Brian Moore.
“That we’re all here together for one common goal.”
And that goal is not only their love of music but the need to share
that love with the community. The song Moore, a music teacher in
Merrimack, described is his own composition “Celebrate Heritage.”
Commissioned by The Amherst Town Band Board of Directors, the song is
meant to commemorate its 25th anniversary. The band will perform the
song, with Moore conducting, at a special concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday,
July 19, on the Amherst Town Green.
“It’s really special for me,” Moore said. “I started playing with the
band when I was in high school in the late nineties. … I have a long
history with them and it’s nice to get to do something that’s in a
different capacity. It was a great honor to have them look to me for
this for the celebration.”
Moore said the piece tells the story of the band and celebrates its
history.
What started out in 1986 as a PTA play organized by Jean Butler has
turned into a local – even regional – staple and a full-blown
nonprofit. When Pat McMullen took over leadership of the band in 1996
after Butler retired, she created a board of directors to help keep the
group on track and expand its reach into the community.
“I formed a board of directors so it was not just my band, it was their
band,” said McMullen, the band’s current conductor. “It’s been a real
strong group ever since.”
The band, whose members range in age from middle school to past
retirement, gets together every Tuesday night to practice.
“Each person brings something different to the band,” she said. “There
are just people who live to come to band on Tuesday night. They get so
excited. And you can just see the people with high-stress jobs – the
stress just leaves them as they are playing. It’s like they leave that
all behind and go someplace else.”
But it’s not all just for fun and self-satisfaction. The band’s reason
for being is to entertain and be a part of the community whether it’s a
visit to a nursing home or a free concert on the green, McMullen said.
And the group has plans to build on that, with perhaps more outreach to
area students who may not have access to music programs, McMullen said.
It’s one of many things the board will be discussing as they look
forward to what they hope will be the next 25 years of the band, at
least.
“What I really hope everybody remembers about it or understands about
it. The whole piece is lots of different melodies and a lot of
different instruments at different times,” Moore said. “The message
musically and overall is even though we all play our own instruments
and we’re all there to play individually we all come together as a
community, as a group over the last 25 years to celebrate our common
love our passion, which is to play music with one another.”
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