Stars And Stripes, Forever

Bella Vista Band celebrates music and America

As traditional as fireworks, band concerts for many decades marked the celebration of the Fourth of July on downtown squares and in riverside parks.

The festivities at Blowing Springs Park in Bella Vista might not look quite like Independence Day in “The Music Man.” But with music by the Bella Vista Community Concert Band and hot dogs and hamburgers served up by the Bella Vista Sunrise Rotary Club, it’s about close as it’s possible to get.

The band, made up of as many as 70 musicians from all walks of life, will play a selection of patriotic music, according to music director George Alter, with a traditional salute to the armed forces, marches and a couple of unusual pieces he’s excited to conduct. One is a selection of spoken testimonies to freedom delivered by a guest narrator, the other a journey across the United States in music.

“It’s kind of interesting since a lot of our audience comes from Bella Vista, and Bella Vista is home to lots of people from other places,” Alter says.

Like most of his musicians, Alter came to Bella Vista from one of those other places. He spent almost 40 years in high school music education in the Kansas City area, he says, and his wife, Margaret, taught elementary school music.

What brought him to the Community Concert Band was a desire to actually play music.

As a resource teacher in music education, Alter supervised about 150 music teachers in Kansas City, Mo., schools - an interesting experience, he says, but not one that let him play his clarinet. He became musicdirector for the community band when his predecessor became ill - one of the challenges for a band made up of “mature” musicians.

“I think the oldest one is pushing 90,” Alter says, “and the youngest one at present just turned 15.”

Sometimes the age of the musicians means losing one to illness. Other times, the fact they are retired means they miss a concert or two during the band’s April to October season.

But Alter says there are enough committed members to keep the group going.

Musicians drive from Holiday Island, Eureka Springs, Sulphur Springs, Neosho, Mo., “and all points in between” to practice on Monday evenings and (generally) to perform on Tuesday evenings.

“It takes dedication to cover that kind of mileage at $3.50 agallon twice a week,” he says.

Experience runs the gamut from Alter’s to those who played in military bands to former or active college professors to percussionist Shari Ogburn, who hadn’t played since high school.

“I just loved band; it was my life,” she says. “So when I saw the (community) band, it just made me want to be a part of it again - and they needed percussion, which they still do.

“It was just like going back to the future, like picking up where I left off,” she says. “It was incredible how reading music and all of it was still there.”

Ogburn says “people don’t realize how much talent” comes together in thecommunity band - or that it even exists.

“I wish they knew,” she says.

The band dates back to 1985, according to its website, when it was founded by Denny Kelliher and Mike Brown in Bentonville. Since 1989, rehearsals have been held at Community Church in Bella Vista, with free concert performances given at Blowing Springs Park throughout the summer months. Some time along the way, the name changed from the Bentonville-Bella Vista Community Band to the Bella Vista Community Band.

Whatever a member’s age or experience, Alter says they’re “dedicated to trying to make music.”

“We all have one purpose in mind, and that is to create music if we can, as well as we can, and hopefully in the process have an audience that responds to it,” he says. “And we have been blessed with audiences that respond very favorably.”

Whats Up, Pages 11 on 06/28/2013

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