Community Band part of local music evolution
30th anniversary concert set for Saturday
Music has been a part of our community’s life since its earliest days. Groups like the city’s firefighters organized a band about a century ago.
The focus shifted to more classical music when the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra was being formed in the 1960s. But in the mid-’80s, newly arrived music director Robert Cook found the city had no band programs for adults.
So New England-trained Cook — brought here by the University of Lethbridge as its first director of the School of Fine Arts — set about organizing one. Its first concert was in 1987.
Coaldale businessman Rene van de Vendel, one of the first to get involved, is now president of the Lethbridge Community Band Society. He’s been eagerly anticipating the organization’s 30th anniversary concert, Saturday at 7 p.m. in Southminster United Church.
“It’s pretty special for a number of reasons,” he says.
For one, the music will be directed by guest conductor Ken Rogers — who served as the Gold Band’s director for eight years. He also led the intermediate-level Silver Band for a decade.
The concert will also introduce Lethbridge audience members to one of the rising stars in Canadian music, vocalist Michael Vanhevel. His arrangements, the euphoniumplaying president points out, were written by legendary Canadian composer and director Howard Cable.
Cable — who died last year at 96 — helped launch Vanhevel’s career in 2012. Based on their mutual enjoyment of the music of the “Big Band” era, Cable went on to create arrangements for Vanhevel’s use.
Cable was a frequent visitor to Lethbridge, van de Vendel point out. And thanks to a longtime friendship with the late Ralph Thrall, he penned musical responses to the landscapes of the McIntyre Ranch and southern Alberta at large.
“It was quite a unique friendship,” allowing the Lethbridge organization to premiere several works inspired by southern Alberta’s stories.
They include “McIntyre Ranch Country,” “Shiny Mountains” and the “Charlie Russell Suite.” Those scores are now a treasured part of the society’s repertoire, van de Vendel adds.
Over 30 years, he notes, the local musicians have created more friendships through their tours and guest appearances across southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and to nearby U.S. communities. They’ve also welcomed many guests to their stage.
“We’ve had many soloists play with us.”
The organization has also offered inspiration to the next generation of players, through family-friendly events like “Tuba Christmas.”
Now van de Vendel says the band members are looking ahead to their Canada Day appearances — and to a new season, with new conductors in the fall.
Mark Ward will now direct the Gold Band, while Sam Yamamoto will return as conductor of the Silver Band.
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