Love of music holds the volunteer Palos Verdes Symphonic Band together.

The overture to Verdi’s “Forza del Destino” was strong and pulsating. The brass of the Palos Verdes Symphonic Band rang out and the clarinets trilled at times like violins.

It was rehearsal night, and the band was polishing the music it will play Sunday at its spring concert at the South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

At the same time, a couple of musicians were celebrating birthdays, and their fellow players were proving that, although they perform serious music, they’re not strait-laced about it.

They played “Happy Birthday” in a kind of musical chaos, mingling a variety of keys and tempos, laughing as they played their way through it.

“No one would do this if they couldn’t have a good time,” said Richard Schwalbe, the longtime conductor of the 60-member band. After all, they’re not paid, they provide their own instruments and when they travel--as they did a year ago for a major band festival in Salinas--they pay their own expenses.

“It’s almost like a family,” said Susan Seamans, who plays timpani and calls the band a place to “enjoy yourself and improve your musicianship.”

Long-term friendships have developed. At rehearsals, coffee and desserts are never far away. “We’re party animals,” said Schwalbe.

Since forming in 1962, the band has played throughout the South Bay and has become inseparable from such holiday celebrations as the Fourth of July in Palos Verdes Estates and Labor Day at the botanic garden, when the band entertains families as they picnic.

The band members, in fact, regard the botanic garden, with its enthusiastic audiences, as their musical home.

“They do many concerts for us,” said Norma Cantafio, executive director of the garden’s foundation. “We bring in the hometown symphonic band and people are delighted to hear a horticulture lecture and also be entertained.”

The music on Sunday will have a definite Spanish and Italian flavor. But with about 10 concerts to play a year, the band’s repertoire varies from opera overtures and symphonies transcribed for band to concert music written specifically for symphonic bands. For outdoor dates, there are lighter pieces, not to mention a small oompah contingent called the Schnitzel-Notes.

Schwalbe and some musicians say that the musical variety--along with the frequent addition of new and challenging pieces--are what keep musicians loyal to the band year after year.

“To keep a volunteer band happy, you need lots of music to play, so you can practice all kinds of things and not just lock in on one concert,” said Byron Myhre, who has played with the band since 1966.

Players describe Schwalbe as a relaxed conductor, but a man who knows what he wants. For his part, Schwalbe says he’s “pretty loose,” explaining: “I don’t stop every two bars to make corrections. That would drive them and me crazy. But when something’s terribly wrong, we stop and make corrections.”

Teachers, doctors, engineers and businessmen make up the band’s ranks, including one man who drives in from Redlands.

“We’re frustrated high school band members,” joked clarinetist Bill Ailor.

But the band has produced one star in Ronald Rom, a member of the noted Canadian Brass. He played with the band as a high school student in the early 1960s.

The band was created by European-born Eugene Rinaldo, who combined careers as a musician and physician and died in 1978 at 93. Rinaldo conducted opera in Prague and graduated from medical school in 1914 after coming to the United States. While a student and a practicing physician in California and then Missouri, he conducted bands.

Rinaldo came to Palos Verdes Estates after retiring as a doctor. His new city wanted a band and he formed one, using his extensive classical music library as the core of the repertory.

Jay A. Cox, a tuba player who joined the band in the first year, recalled Rinaldo as a personable man. “He put a lot of interest into making it go and it gradually grew and grew. It seemed to get better and better,” Cox said.

Schwalbe took over in 1973, when Rinaldo became unable to conduct.

Myhre said the band “does fairly well” for a volunteer group. In the past 10 years, he said, it has ventured into more difficult music, the Saint-Saens “Organ” concerto for one, which it may not have tackled years ago.

Cox said the band has remained attractive to him over the years because it plays good music. “It’s truly a symphonic band,” he said.

Added Seamons: “We take pride in staying steady, working together and giving a good, solid concert.”