Tradition of Porterville Panther Band Concert returns
After 791 days, the Porterville Panther Band, consisting of 100 band members and 60 auxiliary members, returned to the stage Friday night for its 67th annual Spring Concert at the Frank Buck Shaffer Theater inside the Porterville Memorial Auditorium.
This year, the concert started with an announcement that surprised many in the audience — for the first time since the late Frank Buck Shaffer started the tradition, the huge American flag wouldn’t be dropping during the grand finale of the program, said emcee Eric Ball just prior to the start of the concert.
Ball explained it was due to pending improvements, upgrades and inspections which prohibited the moving of anything above the stage, including the grand curtain, lights, or the flag. The audience was assured the flag dropping will return.
And judging by the applause and a standing ovation at the end of the concert, the band didn’t disappoint a single person.
“Tonight’s concert will feature a variety of great band music that is a traditional trademark of a Panther Band show,” Ball said. “We will bring you music from some of the world’s greatest composers as well as music never before heard on this stage.”
With band members’ orange-feathered uniform hats lining the front of the stage, Keele stepped onto the podium, his baton going up in the air, and just like that — the audience appeared to be mesmerized in anticipation of a great performance.
And, again, in Panther Band tradition, the concert started with a bang — the playing of John Phillip Sousa’s march “The Thunderer” — one of Sousa’s best known and loved works — and one of the Panther Band’s traditional street marches.
The concert continued with “Air for Band” by Frank Erickson, a classic piece that serves as a reminder things don’t need to be complicated to be beautiful, Ball said.
The next piece, “A Longford Legend,” was something new to the Panther Band. Played in three
movements, the piece was described as being sometimes silly, sometimes tragic and occasionally frightening. It also featured Andrew Duran on the Alto Saxophone.
And as Keele’s baton finally came down, shouts of “Bravo” could be heard along with thunderous applause.
The band’s Orange Blossoms and banner girls were then given a moment in the spotlight, with all seniors receiving a white rose, before the program continued with an array of band member awards, including the Frank Howard (Porterville High School’s first band director) Awards, First Chair Awards, Jim Kusserow Outstanding Musicianship Award, Orange Blossom awards, the Buck Shaffer Outstanding Musician Award and the Frank Howard Student Award.
Keele then took the microphone to say a few words. He started as band director of the Panther Band in 2018.
“That fall, the Class of 2022 came in as freshman,” he said. “This senior class is my first class I’ve had all four years and is a very special group.”
The class, he said, has been put through all sorts of things.
In March of 2020, the Panther Band was fresh off of an outstanding CMEA Festival performance and the band was looking forward to their annual spring concert, Keele said, when the world shut down. Suddenly, Zoom and outside rehearsals, the wearing of masks on the band members and the instruments followed.
“Now, 791 days later, we are finally back,” Keele said and thanked all the parents, friends, teachers and the community at large for their support.
The band continued with the playing of Laura Estes’ “Kvetchers” — Yiddish for whiners or complainers. The piece is described a bit of a musical joke, Ball said, and is a quick, silly march, full of funny moments, unusual instruments and unexpected twists the students enjoyed learning.
Following a short intermission, the band returned with Arsenal by Jan Van der Roost before playing Percy Grainger’s “Country Gardens” based on an English Folk Song and considered one of Grainger’s best known works.
The next number, “Prayer for Ukraine” had the audience quiet as Ball talked.
“At the end of February, the world watched as war broke out between Russia and Ukraine. Since then, towns and cities have been destroyed, people have lost their homes, and some have lost their lives,” Ball said. “We are horrified at the suffering that we are seeing and hope for peace to return to Ukraine.”
The Panther Band joins musicians around the world in performing Mykola Lysenko’s piece, Ball said.
“As composer Leonard Bernstein once said, ‘This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.’”
The band then switched gears and played “The Little Mermaid,” a number by Alan Menken, arranged by Jay Bocook, before approaching the traditional finale — the Panther Band Concert’s tribute to honor those who have paid the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty while serving their country.
“Tonight’s finale is dedicated to the American who have lost their lives in all wars, to the brave troops who have returned to our homeland from battle, and to the honorable men and women who are serving around the world at this time,” Ball said and asked veterans or current members of the United States Armed Forces to stand when the band plays the song from their branch of the service.
“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight’s finale,” he said as the band started with the playing of the U.S. Army song, followed with that of the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. As each song was played, a former PHS band member, an active or retired representative from that branch of the service, entered the stage carrying the flag representing that division.
“Ladies and gentlemen, John Philip Sousa’s, ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever,’ Ball said.
The band started playing, complete with the flute and piccolo players walking forward to play at the front of the stage — and as they finished their segment and returned to their seats, up walked the brass section of the band — trombones and trumpets — to take their place in front of the stage. And as they did, the doors to the back of the auditorium simultaneously flew open as the Orange Blossoms, majorettes, banner girls, flag girls and drill team, simultaneously walked down to the front and lined all the theater’s aisles. As the brass joined the rest of the band already playing, the flag girls performed in two of the aisles, waving their short flags, as the American flag was led onto the stage, prompting many in the auditorium to stand, all while the majorettes, Orange Blossoms, Banner Girls and Drill Team saluted and continued to do so until the number ended.
Thunderous applause continued through, and following the end of the march.
“I thought they were incredible,” said Derek Schumaker, band director of Pioneer Middle School. “It was a real rough year for all of us but all have improved incredibly over the past year. I thought they did great.”