One of Roanoke’s long-standing best-kept secrets will be putting on yet another of its delightful performances – coming up this week on Tuesday November 30 at 7 p.m. at Cave Spring High School. The Roanoke Valley Community Band (RVCB) is presenting its Winter Concert, featuring a variety of music, including several crowd-pleasing holiday pieces.
For some outside the music world, a name like “Community Band” might be a bit generic, making it easy to overlook. But the band is one of many similar groups across the US, filling a distinct niche in communities for musicians and audiences alike. According to Myron White, a percussionist and the group’s current President, the band “plays concert band music, and features things like the Souza marches, Broadway play tunes, even Disney show tunes,” music most people are familiar with and enjoy hearing.
White, who also played in a Scottish Band – composed of bagpipes and drums — for 20 years, says he “missed the first rehearsal of the Community Band back in the 80s, but made it to the second, and I’ve been coming ever since.” He calls their music “the number one type of music I like to play,” adding that “the band offers something unique.”
There are others who apparently are in agreement; the band is composed of about 80 musicians of all ages and backgrounds who rehearse once a week and put on three formal concerts each year –Winter, Pops, and Spring. The group also performs at area retirement homes and other places that have the room to accommodate them. All the performances are free and no member receives compensation of any kind.
With the group operating on a tiny budget, one of the main challenges is getting the word out to the public. RVCB has its loyal followers, and White believes that “There is a large number of people in the Roanoke Valley who like concert band music” and more would attend the performances if only they were aware.
The range of talent in the group is varied. White says “some are professional musicians with degrees and extensive [musical] backgrounds, and some are new, having played in high school or college and have decided to get their instrument off the shelf in their closet.”
The group is led by Director Wilbur Grant, who was Glenvar’s band director for 23 years. Grant is not a big fellow, but commands authority, often stopping to redirect the group as they practiced at a recent rehearsal. White was almost chuckling when he said that many years ago “when the band first started they were not that good, but now we do sound really great.”
The music selections for the upcoming Winter Concert will feature about half holiday selections; if last week’s rehearsal is any indication, sleigh bells will be ringing…
The Winter Concert is at 7 p.m. Nov. 30 at Cave Spring High School. For more information on the concert or joining Community Band, contact Myron White at (540) 774-8885 or Wilbur Grant at (540) 389-3294. The band requires no audition and rehearsals are every Tuesday 7-9 September through May.
