Summer concert draws variety of musicians
By VIRGINIA SKINNER
The Peabody Community Band held its second annual "Summer Concert in Santa Fe Park" Aug. 23. Forty-three musicians played a variety of music including marches, show-tunes, classics, patriotic songs, and novelty numbers.
Special guests were "The Bowen Belles and Beau" from Valley Center, who performed hoe-down music on violin and accordion.
The temperature had reached 97 degrees that afternoon, and by 7 p.m. when the concert began, the mercury was still hovering around 90. Several musical selections seemed especially apropos: "Summertime" from "Porgy and Bess" and the traditional "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight."
As the cicada joined in from the surrounding elm trees and the sun dropped lower in the sky, "The Band Played On" and the hour-long program ended with selections from "The Music Man" followed by several patriotic numbers.
One fourth of the musicians in this summer's band were Peabody High School alumni. Gwen Gaines, Peabody, and Herschel Stroud, Topeka, had been in Peabody High School bands in the 1940s.
Janet Jewell Sims, Hutchinson, Donna Skinner Nelson, Lindsborg, and Virginia Skinner, Peabody, all played in the bands in the 1950s and '60s.
Annnete Warkentine Weems, Sheila Philpott Buller, Julia Grosse Ensminger, and Steven Glover, all of Peabody were PHS band members in the 1970s and '80s. Ryan Strotkamp was the youngest alumnus, having graduated in the '90s.
Another one-fourth of the band was comprised of students presently in the Peabody-Burns junior and senior high schools. With their youthful energy and recently honed musical skills they effortlessly filled in the spaces between adults who may not have played for months or years.
The remaining one-half of the band were non-alumni musicians from Peabody and surrounding towns including Goessel, Inman, Moundridge, Newton, Salina, and Whitewater. These are folks who enjoyed playing in the bands where they grew up and are excited to have the chance to be in a band again.
Among the adults playing were six teachers, four homemakers, two nurses, two ministers, two bankers, two professional musicians, a farmer, a school principal, a school superintendent, a veterinarian, and several retired folks.
The musician traveling the greatest distance was Kerstin Maier from Germany. A foreign exchange student with the Bowen family, she added her considerable skills to the trombone section.
The program this summer was ambitious, and it was no mean feat to mesh the schedules of 43 musicians for rehearsals. However, everyone worked hard and, in spite of the heat, about 150 people came to listen and applaud loudly and encourage the band to do it again next year.
And do it they shall. Hopefully even more musicians will get their horns out of closets and their lips back in shape and call 1-620-983-2246 for information about next year's band.
