Chris Truckenmiller, Director of the Boone High School Band and also Director for the Boone Municipal Band joined by Jill Lutz, a member of the Boone Municipal Band and the Iowa Municipal Band Festival Committee are guests and talk about the Boone Municipal Band season beginning on Wednesday, May 27th.
Transcript
On our program today, we are going to talk about our Boone Municipal Band joining us. The, I don't know, what do we want to call you, the new historic longest serving municipal band director? Oh no, not even close, Dave Richardson was like 30 years. Second, I'll take that, I'll take second one. Fifth in line to be mayor. We figured that out. Jill Lutz also joins us today. Good morning. We're the municipal band and also part of the committee that does the municipal band festival, not to be mixed up, but it are two different things. But the municipal band festival obviously a result of having a successful municipal band over the years. Yes. So we also have, over the last couple of years, been doing a lot of different things. So go to Chris right away. High school band concerts. Traditionally the high school band director has been this, but for many years Dave Richardson did it. We went through a lot of high school band directors after he retired, who never really stepped up. Yep. They, Dave seemed to really enjoy it and I don't think the other band directors were sad to let that responsibility stay with him. It's busy. How hard is this? It's not overly hard. It does take a lot of time though. There's a lot of prep work that goes into it. And then the energy, we have to bring the energy every concert, every rehearsal. But it's fun. Once we're there and I see all the players, I get the energy from them because they love doing this. It's fun for everyone. You've got a hardcore, we have a hardcore group of people that like to get out and do this. I mean, they've played for years and just don't really want to let it go. Yeah. I like to brag about that a little bit. We have members that have been playing since the seventies and we have a member this year who is a sophomore in high school. So we really run the gamut. Get the whole works in there too. Let's talk a little bit about it. Again, getting organized. Obviously, the first thing is we started what end of April is when you start doing some weekly rehearsals or just to get people together. Yep. Yep. We got to, we got to dust off our instruments. We got to get our, get our chops back to playing order. But it happens really fast. The first rehearsal, we're all excited to see the music again. And then the second rehearsal, it starts to set in and we start really digging into what our show will be like this summer. Okay. When do you sit down and kind of start planning? Do I want to have any themes? Do I want, why do I want to do? Yeah. So I get, I kind of get inspired all year and I'll try to jot down if, if something strikes my fancy. Also deadlines really helped me. I have, okay, I have two days and I got to get this. Exactly. Exactly. It's like, I need to get this figured out. Let's go. And, and you try, do you try to come up with something different every time? Yeah. I don't like to repeat myself that often. And I try to come up with new themes and just interesting ideas and things that'll make me laugh. Certain things we know tend to go pretty well all the time. Any, any kind of marches rule. Yep. Yep. We got that. There's, yeah, there's definitely a formula to that. And so, and we've got a lot of that have been commissioned. You could, you could do a whole concert just on your commission pieces. We are really close to that. So doing all of that. Well, let's talk a little bit about, and Jill, we have a lot of partners that help or are joining in, actually, you guys are kind of bringing in a lot of partners. The library in particular. Yeah. In particular, the library. Oh my, it's been three or four years now that we've partnered with them. And we just kind of wanted to get more awareness that our concerts were happening. And we also, you know, they put out a monthly calendar and we could be on their calendar. And the folks at the library are outstanding. They've taken it to another level. And for example, at our first concert here on Wednesday, May 27th, you can go out to Herman Park Pavilion early and make a paper mache hot air balloon. So then they will have the things there to assemble it and no registration is necessary. And they just, we gave them the first date of the concert and they came up with an idea for it. So, and this obviously one of the things having a lot of people obviously use the library of all ages, but it also draws younger people. Yes. Younger people out there and you love having kids around. And Chris has, after the pandemic, he kind of was like, let's do a kid's concert. And so, you know, I reached out to the library and I thought, what a perfect, you know, we have Mr. Z, our children's librarian. And you again, give him an idea. He runs with it. Chris kind of said, I'm going to go with a more scary, creepy theme this year. For this year. Yeah. We haven't done that before. So like, we have a lot of fun pieces like the one about Ichabod Crane, Sleepy Hollow, the Nightmare Before Christmas, what else here? We have March of the Trolls. So, a lot of fun, kind of scarier side. But some kids will like it. Yes. Mr. Z came back. He's like, I've got the perfect book. I'm going to read Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and I will have a craft based on that. So, again, you know, it's been wonderful to work with them and they have a lot of good ideas as well that tie in to our concerts. First concert of the season always comes up the last Wednesday in May. Yep. Yeah. Ready for it? Oh, always. Oh, you are. Always. Are they ready for it? Always. I know. Even if we're not, we're going to say we are. You do like, I mean, the folks, when you see the band and stuff, like you said, a lot of different ages, but you have other band directors that are in this band. Yes. We've got people that go back and forth between here and Ames. You get a lot of people that like to play in them. Very true. We have members that are in multiple municipal bands and we'll rehearse at least four days a week. That is, that's enjoying music and doing that. Let's talk a little bit about what you got coming up here. So regular concerts every Wednesday, 7.30, Herman Park Pavilion. Yep. Come on out. Free of charge. Bring a lawn chair if you want. You can sit on bleachers if you want, but mostly people are bringing a lot of lawn chairs. And in the pavilion, which still iconic, yes, I'm going to say, but we are pushing what almost 110 years. Yeah. Over a hundred years on that. But sound in there, yeah, that's the one thing because even with the municipal band festival coming up, I think the big thing is is just the sound in there is people just are drawn to it. Yeah. And it's, it's such a simple design. We just have a back wall and the pavilion over us, but it creates that acoustical brilliance for us. All right. So others things coming. You got your scary concert coming up. Like you said, the kids concert that'll be on June 10th. And then you get a break here towards the end of June when you roll in the big band. Yes. The big band will be the last week of June. I think that's 26, 24, 24th, and again, we do have members that are from our band that are in that. Yep. We have an instrument in that one. I usually play Barry Sachs. So he, he, he's there, he's back and he will be playing. And then we get, actually you get a little longer break before the patriotic concert because it's on a Saturday. It is on a Saturday. So that does, that does mean we do not have a Wednesday concert that week. We'll make it. Yeah. We'll get by. And then we come back after that with a regular Wednesday concert after the, after that. But that's kind of your setup getting ready for the municipal band festival, which is on the 11th. Yep. And Jill has more information. Jill's got the information on the municipal band festival, July 11th, Herman Park Pavilion. It starts at 10 a.m. goes to 7 p.m. and this is the 34th year for the Iowa Municipal Band Festival. And I mean, it still continues to be extremely popular. And we set our lineup about May 1st so I can run down the lineup here. Well, let's just say Dale. Dale's showing. He's our chair and he does a wonderful job. So we do have three first time bands still every year, I think, you know, everyone who knows about it has come, but then different ones are coming out of the woodwork every year. But I'll start at 10 a.m. with the Ames Municipal Band. Ames always comes and starts the day for us. They're an outstanding band. They've only missed once. They've missed once. So this is their 33rd appearance. At 11 a.m., we have the Iowa Western Community Band out of Council Bluffs. This is their third appearance. A lot of times when, you know, bands come from a distance, they charter a bus and come over and, you know, we're glad to have them. At noon is the Nevada Community Band. This is their first appearance. And then at one, we have the Council Bluffs Wind Ensemble. It is their first appearance. So I'm guessing it might be a smaller group, a wind ensemble might be, or maybe more tailored with different instrumentation. At 2 p.m., we have the Ballard Creek Big Band of Huxley in the first appearance. I think we've had groups from Huxley before, but not the Ballard Creek Big Band until this year. Next at 3 p.m. is the Glenwood Community Band. It is their second appearance. They were here last year. They were here last year for the first time. And I know we like to come back and invite those... They were good. Yeah. And if they've come once, let's bring them back again kind of quickly so they, you know, know that this is something they can come to and they enjoy it. Let's get them back. 4 p.m. is the Heart of Iowa Band out of Ames. It's their eighth appearance. And this is one of those senior citizen bands, New Horizon-type bands. We've had them here before, eighth time. 5 p.m. is the Urbandale Community Adult Band. Their 19th appearance. And that is our legacy band. While back, we, there were about three Central Iowa bands that apply every year no matter what. And we wanted to take them on a regular basis as well. Some of our leaner years, they were the only ones applying. So we wanted to recognize that and bring them back on a regular basis. So we have the ones that have been there quite frequently. Yes. Obviously. And then you wrap it up with Boone. Wrap it up with Boone at 6 p.m. The 34th appearance for the 34th Iowa Munoz Small Band Festival. And it looks like for the small groups this year, it looks like we have one group that's going to perform multiple times, Gail and the Back Row Boys out of Ames. This is a low brass group connected with the Heart of Iowa Band. And they perform at 10.45, 11.45, 12.45, 1.45 and 2.45. And it's possible someone may come at the end of the day and, you know, want to perform. They'll end a couple of other. But yeah, that's kind of who's committed at this point and they're going to perform multiple times. So. It'll be on July 11th. July 11th at Herman Park Pavilion. Yes. All right. Now for all the concerts, of course, you have standing line, standing line there for tickets to get in. Hot. Nope. Yeah. It's, again, we have a lot of foot traffic around because people park and they'll walk up there and then some people ride their bikes and, you know, we just, it's, it's always a fun time. Yes. It's always, it's fun to see people coming and going and especially for the people that just happen upon it. All right. So when you lay out your concerts, obviously each one, you got a different idea. But you tend to have certain, you'd like to get different kinds of music each one. So our first concert is going to be celebrating the start of summer. Okay. So that's, that's going to be a fun way to start. The second concert I'm kind of excited about, I'm planning on making a motivational concert. Here's my tagline. I'll try it out on you. Okay. Hi. I'm Chris Truckinmiller. I'm fifth in line for mayor. What are you fifth in line for? Ooh. So try to lift people up. All right. Our third concert will be the kids concert. And then we have a Boon Big Band concert coming up after that. And then kind of a world travel concert. So we're going to explore different places and also different times. Okay. So again, music from different eras. Yep. So we have locations like Caribbean fantasy or the piece New York 1927. So we're going to, we're going to explore a little space and time there. And then our final show will be kind of a kind of a celebration of the whole year. On July 15th. Correct. You did Christmas music last year. Yeah. I'm going to give that a one year break. Yeah. One year break. Because it's fun to do. You don't want to do the same thing. Exactly. Don't want to get too stuck in a certain cycle. All right. So one of the things in over, it's been interesting to watch because we knew what we had a band last year during the municipal band festival that brought music, school music, closed down what a school and they had all kinds of, and a lot of band directors were hastening over there to check it out to see what might be there. You guys are always, and I know you use some of the schools, but you've got some of your own too. Yeah. That's what's really cool about the partnership with the municipal band and the school is that any music, the municipal band, they give us free use for concert band if it fits. Because the municipal band uses the band room to rehearse, and so it's a great partnership and I'm really pleased that it's kept going this long. It's one of those, sometimes it's a challenge. For those that are playing in the band, when you get new music, how hard is, I mean, you know, you have a lot of really good musicians and do they have to practice a lot, rehearse a lot and are they right on? Are there times when you just go, I'm done, we're good? I did throw one piece at the group this year because we had been playing really well. I was like, okay, I've been thinking of a piece I wanted to try. We've done it once in high school band. We threw it in front of them. It went okay, but we're putting that one away. There are limits. There are some. Wow. It's a challenge sometimes and we do play a lot of old favorites and, you know, ones from previous years and the new ones are exciting too, but you just draw on, you know, you dig deep and draw on your knowledge and, you know, do the best you can and then it'll probably come back next year and you can do it that much better. I was going to say because, I mean, the number of people you have that have been playing for so long. You have some very good musicians. Oh, yeah. And that's what I, it's so fun to hear that in that first rehearsal because I always, I'm always thinking like, oh, did we score too hard? This again, it's like, no, no, this band's got it. Okay. So you get a number of students. Now can just any student become part of the music this way or do you, do they have to have some skills as long as they're listening? Yeah. There's a special intersection of being skilled and having a need for that instrument in the band and there, there have been a lot of students that have stepped up. I have a flute player that's actually going to help in our percussion section, but they're very quick learners. So I have no worries about that. Yeah. And you have a number of them that have, well, or didn't graduate. I saw this year. I mean, you know, a number of that have been playing have graduated. Maybe they'll play yet this year, but will they be coming back? Yeah. And that's, you know, as a, as the local band director, it's really, it's, it's heartening to see like how many of my former students are involved in this and it's, it's really flattering or humbling, you know, all those good things. The one thing I always find interesting, you know, when you get during the summer and people come and go and people are visiting town and stuff, but you always get a number of people that I used to play in the band 20 years ago or 18 years ago, 15 years ago. Some of them went to high school with you. We had former members that got engaged at a municipal band concert. There's, there's, so there's a lot of opportunity. So we know we put out the thing about, I mentioned occasionally ice cream and pie and stuff there. We're setting that up. So we'll see how that all comes together yet. And don't forget the rebroadcasts. We're going to rebroadcast the concerts again on KWBG. So thank you for all those at KWBG who help with that. Thanks for getting them recorded. Yeah. We did have recordings available when we were putting them on Facebook and this is just another avenue. So those will start typically what happens is we play the concert like we'll play this one on Wednesday, the 27th, and then we'll rebroadcast on Sunday, the 31st at 11. 11 o'clock and Cubbs baseball. You should come on after it. So and we'll do that throughout June and July. And and we do try to get those posted up as so people can go online and get them as well. Right. It's just another avenue to get, you know, to reach our people. And maybe if you hear it, you'll come the next week to listen in person. So all right. Looking forward to a great season. It's going to be, it's going to be really fun. It's going to be a fun season. And again, kids of all ages, welcome to come out. Yep. Kids, adults, everyone that wants to. I have a lot of people that come up to me. They're like, yeah, I just sit on my porch and listen from a little bit away. They're not that far away. And again, you know, it's just one of those things. A great opportunity to get out and enjoy it. I always like it because you got the kids playing, usually on the playground. And well, and it's just I'm proud to be able to provide a little bit of entertainment and culture to the town because like that's what makes our communities special like they are. Our, our fans love the municipal band and we love them right back. And it's, I don't know, it's just a really deeply satisfying thing to be able to provide to the community. It's, we, you know, and I know people always talk about those that have been around longer when the before the school was built and and we when we still had the old park over there where they would gather around the park and sit in the cars and honk, honk. We don't do the honking now, but we did a pretty good crowd. Yes. So and definitely look forward to having another great season. Boone Municipal Band kicks it off on Wednesday, the 27th, 730 Herman Park Pavilion. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, Jim. Thank you.
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