is still operating?
I played with them in the late 70s...at the time, they were the continuously operating community band in the country, playing Sundays in the park (without George)....as I recall, they paid $60 a performance.
There was a time when many municipalities had working (paid) community bands; I attended a conservatory in NYC and one of the perks was playing with varied community bands in the New York area; typically parades or concerts on Sunday afternoon (for which I played piccolo...I wasn't about to carry a bari sax for 2 miles in NY summers)...and concerts in these wonderful city parks on Saturday nights. They all paid....I don't recall what the scale was, but was enough to eat for a week (of course, things were cheaper then).
We played one concert at a band shell overlooking the Long Island Sound....a wonderfully sultry summer evening. The piccolo section was very strong, with excellent players...and the capper of the night was Stars and Stripes where we were joined by the tuba player from the NY Phil....
Sadly...I think the days of community bands has left us...certainly as a paying gig...not that it was enough to make a living.
Anthony
I played with them in the late 70s...at the time, they were the continuously operating community band in the country, playing Sundays in the park (without George)....as I recall, they paid $60 a performance.
There was a time when many municipalities had working (paid) community bands; I attended a conservatory in NYC and one of the perks was playing with varied community bands in the New York area; typically parades or concerts on Sunday afternoon (for which I played piccolo...I wasn't about to carry a bari sax for 2 miles in NY summers)...and concerts in these wonderful city parks on Saturday nights. They all paid....I don't recall what the scale was, but was enough to eat for a week (of course, things were cheaper then).
We played one concert at a band shell overlooking the Long Island Sound....a wonderfully sultry summer evening. The piccolo section was very strong, with excellent players...and the capper of the night was Stars and Stripes where we were joined by the tuba player from the NY Phil....
Sadly...I think the days of community bands has left us...certainly as a paying gig...not that it was enough to make a living.
Anthony