The music hasn’t died for the community band.
“We’re still kicking,” said band director Art Ferris.
This weekend alone, the band will play in Port Arthur for veterans and then at the Orange VFW.
The Orange Community Band, started in 1959, has morphed into the Southeast Texas Community Band. Ferris said the band was drawing musicians from other areas and groups in Orange stopped wanting to hear the group perform, so the name was changed. They’ve even played in Houston, including on the USS Texas on Pearl Harbor Day and at the USS Houston memorial.
The City of Orange, however, didn’t realize the group was still using the old armory building on Meeks Drive. Public Works Director Jim Wolf was looking to clear out the band’s space at the armory because the parks department is moving there after Tropical Storm Harvey.
The band’s storeroom has a xylophone, piano, thousands of sheets of music, dozens of heavy metal music stands and a set of copper timpani drums. “The Symphony of Southeast Texas doesn’t have a set of timpanis as good as ours,” Ferris said.
On Thursday, Wolf and Parks Director James Lawrence showed the band rooms, hoping to find out who should get the instruments and music.
The rooms had been flooded during Harvey. Sheet music spread on a table had the tell-tale waves of paper that had been wet. The two were surprised because they could tell someone had been in the room since they had last been there.
It was the first sign the city staff had seen in a long time that the rooms were being used. “The air conditioner was broken for a couple of years, but no one called,” Wolf said.
“That’s ridiculous,” Ferris said. “The city has to know we’re there.”
The band rooms are at the back of the building and the back door gives a separate entrance for the group. Other city rooms in the armory are locked off from the band. Wolf said the lock needed to be changed.
Ferris on Thursday said the group rehearsed there last week and had 20-plus musicians. They were the ones that went in after the flood and cleaned the mess. The group was there again on Thursday.
The city has provided space for the band since it began. Back in 1959, the city bought the World War II-era hospital on 20th Street and turned it into a community center. According to the daily newspaper at the time, Orange had a population of 31,555, compared to 18,595 in the last census.
The community center, first known as the “Youth Center,” later became the Thomen Center. It had a skating rink, pool room, meeting rooms, a junior rifle range, and permanent rooms with for the Orange Community Band. The library was even there. Through the years, the center declined like the town’s population.
Hurricane Rita in 2005 damaged the old building beyond repairs. It was torn down and the site is now the Shangri La parking lot. The city then let the band have rooms in the old armory.
A November 1960 newspaper story reported the Orange Community Band gave a concert at Carl Godwin Auditorium with an admission of 50 cents for students and $1 for adults. The money was going to help buy equipment, instruments and music.
The first concert included marches, patriotic songs and Broadway show tunes, just like the songs the band plays today.
The director in 1960 was Joe Beneke, coordinator of music for the Orange Independent School District and the Stark High band director. Beneke, an Orange native, went on to earn a doctorate and served as the superintendent for the Spring ISD. An elementary school there is named in his honor.
For nearly 60 years, the community band performed at all kind of events and often scheduled outdoor concerts simply to play.
Ferris said the band played at Orange’s Art in the Park for several years. However, recently the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, which sponsors the event, said they were hiring groups.
“We just said Orange is turning their backs on us, we’ll still support Orange, but we’ll support the whole area,” he said.
And instead of outdoors concerts in heat on the Fourth of July, the band has played an indoor concert in Port Athur with air conditioning. Other places have welcomed the group.
Through the years the band provided a place for amateur, and even some professional, musicians to play and have fun. Sometimes high school students will join in, but most of the time, the band has adults who usually played when they were in high school.
Ferris hopes the city doesn’t toss out the band’s belongings. Besides the instruments, he said their library includes “music that should be in the Smithsonian.” Some of the sheet music has long been out of print and other band enthusiasts would like to find copies.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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