September 14, 2023, marks the twentieth season of the Huntsville Community Band.
Founded in 2003, with its first spring concert in 2004, the band has performed a series of annual concerts throughout its history. From September to June the band meets weekly to practice selected pieces that they present publicly over the summer months of the following year.
With a current roster of 25 members, the band is a showcase for local amateur musicians who play or want to play wind instruments in a structured setting. This year the band includes positions for flutes, clarinets, alto, tenor, baritone and soprano saxophones, tubas, trombones, trumpet, and bass clarinet. Presently, the band lacks a drummer but band director Sarah Lovering-Stallard has access to one from another local orchestra—the Muskoka Concert Band.
Considered an adult beginner band, similar to high school level skills, the arrangements, and repertoire are designed to meet the overall capabilities of the instrumentalists yet challenging enough to expand the band’s proficiency.
Ideally, the band attracts musicians who have not played for a while or who want to apply their skills to another instrument. As a specialty concert band, new members are always welcome and with a new practice year commencing, it is a perfect time to join or get more information.
Contact Sarah Lovering-Stallard directly at [email protected] or by phone at 705-499-5209.
The first director, Jordon Riley, started with only six members. As a music teacher at Huntsville High School, he advertised in a local paper for candidates. Surprisingly, six members of the original band still remain. Sarah Lovering-Stallard first heard the band in Huntsville at Bullock’s Your Independent Grocer at Christmas and thought it might be fun to participate, which she briefly did before moving on to the more demanding repertoire of the Muskoka Concert Band.
As the music teacher at Land of Lakes Public School in Burk Falls, Lovering-Stallard was asked to become director of the Huntsville Community Band in 2014. Lovering-Stallard is responsible for choosing material specifically for concert bands that includes arrangement and scores. As the conductor, she must prepare and rehearse the ensemble to the recital level. Each year she develops a program that is exciting for the players and interesting for the public. The march this season will be the Liberty Bell March and the orchestra will tackle some tricky pop tunes; God Only Knows by the Beach Boys—Brian Wilson’s masterpiece, Santana’s Evil Ways, and excerpts from Les Misérables.
The group practices every Thursday evening at Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish in Huntsville. Concerts are presented throughout Huntsville in churches, retirement communities, grocery stores, and Concerts on the Dock.
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