Marriott to occupy hotel building
February 28, 2008
Troy Anthony Lirette
March 3, 2008
HTCB a real community affair
By MIKE BROSSETTE
Members of the 45-piece Houma-Terrebonne Community Band – which will hold its 24th Anniversary Concert on Sunday, March 16 – do not get paid for playing, so what keeps them blowing away on their instruments?
Not surprisingly, the musicians gave as their reason the sheer love of music.
But two members offered a more specific reason: Twenty years after playing in their school bands, and after raising families, they simply missed the music.
“I played trumpet in grade school,” said Roger Hebert, who joined the Community Concert Band in 1988. “You get married, the interest comes back. After 20 years of not playing, guys in the organization asked me to join. It was love of music.”
Trombonist Brett Bourg, who is also publicity coordinator, played the instrument in his high school band.
“I went to college, had kids,” he said. “Twenty years later, I started missing it.”
Bourg said a clarinetist in the group went the longest of all the members without playing before joining the band – 40 years.
“Some guys do it just for fun,” Hebert said, “but I’m one who works at it to get better. I also like the challenge of music. It’s like sports. You have to dedicate your life to it to become excellent.”
Hebert also likes the recognition that comes with being a musician.
“I enjoy showing people how I can play trumpet, knowing they enjoy it,” he said. “I like the feedback from the audience. It’s gratifying giving back to people.”
He said he practices his instrument one to two hours a day.
“The trumpet’s very physical,” Hebert said. “Your body has to be in certain positions.”
Perhaps that physicality is the reason almost half the group consists of high school band members. But those students are vital, Bourg said.
“They really make a contribution,” he said. “We miss them when they’re not there, off with their high school bands.”
(Around 15 members of the Concert Band are over age 60.)
The group has a core of 30 members, said trumpeter Don Rhodes, who is one of the founders. Others join and leave the outfit frequently.
The band has played around 400 concerts since its founding in 1985, including nursing homes and school board functions, Rhodes said. He is also an original member of the Houma-Terrebonne Community Stage Band, which plays mainly popular jazz and dance music.
Like the Concert Band, the Stage Band is putting on four concerts in 2008.
“It’s something I’ve loved all my life,” Rhodes said. “It gives me an opportunity to play music and make friends.”
Although he enjoys playing, Rhodes emphasized that the band has experienced its share of difficulties.
The biggest problem has been the lack of a permanent home. The group has had 13 different homes, including the current headquarters in the band room at Southdown Stadium on St. Charles Street in Houma.
“We’ve bettered every place we’ve called home,” Rhodes said.
Through the years, the band has given concerts at the Houma Municipal Auditorium, Southland Mall, Courthouse Square and the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center.
Another problem has been the rising cost of liability insurance, Rhodes said. In addition, the band needs to spend $5,000 a year to operate, much of it for repairing instruments.
The group has instruments available free of charge for any musician wanting to join, but violinists need not bother: The band does not have a string section.
Still, enduring the difficulties is worth it for the chance to play with fellow musicians.
“I started playing music in the 5th grade at Houma Elementary in 1953,” Rhodes said. “My band director was S.L. Locascio, who is in the band.
He’s 81.”
The Houma-Terrebonne Band celebrates its 24th anniversary this month with a free concert March 16 at the Houma Municipal Auditorium.
