By Nancy Jennings
The air will be filled with music at the eighth annual
Mid-Willamette Adult Band Festival on Saturday, April 29, in the Silverton High School Auditorium. The Silverton-based Marion County Citizen’s Band will join three other participating bands: Keizer Community Band, Portland Metro Community Band and Clackamas Community Band. Starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 3:30 p.m., the free event promises a feast for the ears – and perhaps even a bit of nostalgia. The public is welcome to attend.
Band members recapture the fun and energy of performing in a high school band. Any adult can join. For some, going through their closets and dusting off their musical instrument is all it takes to reignite an interest. All that is required is for potential members to reach a certain level of proficiency.
Band Director Dale Sroufe, 68, has played in the band since moving to Silverton with his wife, Wendy, in 1990. He enjoyed it so much over the years, he became the director in 2005. He plays the saxophone and bassoon.
Sroufe began his undergraduate work in music education. He taught for two years in the Gresham area, then he and his wife moved to Alaska. During their 20-year stay there, he taught elementary school band. The Sroufes then moved back to Oregon, settling in Silverton.
“Even though we are called the Marion County Citizen’s Band we have people who come from Oregon City, Beaverton, even up towards the Damascus/Gresham area,” Sroufe said.
“We play standard band repertoire of arrangements by composers who have been around for years, and at a level that would be upper high school/college age.”
Sroufe said the band plays many times a year at various venues, never charging a fee. However, at times they do perform at places that provide them with a stipend “that goes into a fund to buy music and instruments that we need.”
Each band will have a 40-minute time slot to perform their musical selections.
Donated gift certificates from local businesses will be included in door prize drawings – which will be held during band breaks.
“At the end of the day, we have each band director choose one piece of music and we do a mass band. Everybody that can stay until the end of the day gets squeezed up on stage. We sometimes have over 100 musicians,” Sroufe said.
