Profile:
The Mesilla Valley Concert Band
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Fred Sell is a retired insurance executive; Nancy Burr is a computer systems analyst; Charles Murrel is a retired dentist; Sue McBrayer is a counselor at a large University.
Not a group with a lot in common, right?
Wrong. As a matter of fact, they have something very much in common: a chronic love affair with music in general and band music in particular, coupled with a strong desire to make music for themselves. How do they go about it? Well, let's first meet someone else.
Bill Clark is a tuba player from Arkansas who
grew up playing in and directing bands at every level: grade
school, high school, college, volunteer, military, and
professional. At the moment, Dr. William D. Clark, Ph.D., is Head
of the Department of Music at New Mexico State University, a job
that demands enormous amounts of time and energy for
administration, teaching, counseling, planning, and the
unavoidable parade of meetings and conferences. But you
could make Bill Clark Secretary General of the United Nations,
chief executive officer of a multi-national corporation, or
President of the United States, and he would still find time
somehow to get a band together and conduct it. Bands
constitute the major component of Bill Clark's cell structure.
That's why, in 1987, despite the formidable demands of his job,
Clark went out, located some people who wanted to make music for
the fun of it, and founded The Mesilla Valley Community Band. And
so, at 7:00 pm every Sunday night, in Tross Rehearsal Hall of the
NMSU Music Center, Nancy Burr picks up her clarinet, Sue McBrayer
takes up an oboe, Charles Murrel grabs an alto saxophone, and
Fred Sell seats himself in the principal trombone chair, to join
scores of other people--school teachers, mechanical engineers,
homemakers, insurance agents, retirees, and almost anything else
you could name--in making music for fun.
 Oh,
they're plenty serious about it; Bill Clark is an affable
guy, but he makes them work. He will tell you quite
openly that when they first got together some ten years
ago it was an absolute disaster. Some of the
members had not touched their instruments in many years,
others had never played in a band before, still others
were not too keen on the kind of intense rehearsing Clark
demanded, and eventually weeded themselves out.
But in a remarkably short time, the band grew
both in size and in quality, until today it arguably
ranks among the finest amateur bands in the country. |
The first concert took place in NMSU's Music Center Recital Hall in October, 1987; thirty-three of the bravest members showed up to perform. It was, Clark admits, "forgettable." But New Mexico State University has a long history of successful band programs and has spread its music graduates throughout the state and beyond, many of them into professional band and orchestra positions in public schools and colleges; moreover, the area public was already in the habit of going to band concerts. It wasn't long before word spread that there was a place for people who used to play and would like to get back to it, or who played occasionally and would enjoy playing regularly, or who were students and would like to play for the fun of it without worrying about grades. Soon the band was growing steadily in both size and enthusiasm, and as it did, Clark began tightening the screws on quality. The response of the members was immediate and gratifying, and was soon matched by that of their listeners. An assistant conductor was appointed: NMSU graduate John Schutz, who was for many years Director of Bands at Mayfield High School and is now a public school administrator. A wide range of repertoire was chosen, from classical through traditional band music, to pop. "We do a lot of different styles," says Clark, "but no junk."
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The band remains strictly a volunteer organization, with no pay for members, officers, or conductors. Funds for travel, instruments, hall rental and other expenses are more than met by generous donations from individuals and businesses in the community; in fact, so popular is this group that soliciting for money is entirely unnecessary. |
Recently, the name was changed to The Mesilla Valley Concert Band at New Mexico State University. Why "concert" instead of "community"? Clark explained that the new title narrows the group's function to that of an indoor, seated aggregation, and distinguishes it from a marching band. Why no marching? "Well," said Clark, "if we ever tried that, there wouldn't be enough Ben-Gay on the planet!"
At one of the band's recent concerts there were 98 players on the stage--exactly triple it's original size if you count the conductor--and the 504-seat recital hall was packed to the rafters. The program included music by Shostakovich and Bizet, the National Anthem, the world premiere of a work by NMSU composer Sam Hollomon, and the inevitable Sousa march. The audience whooped it up and demanded an encore, which turned out to be an arrangement of Glenn Miller's In the Mood. When it was all over, the general sentiment was expressed by one enthusiastic listener in the crowded lobby:
"Man," he
said, "if that don't light your fire, your wood's
wet!"
(This is the first in a series of Profiles featuring amateur musicians and music groups.)
