Burbank Community Band gives musicians an opportunity
- Share via
Burbank resident Sally Hallada loved music when she was younger and played saxophone in a number of concert bands growing up, including the New Jersey State Jazz Ensemble. However, at some point, she put the instrument on a shelf and eventually got rid of it.
But about five years ago, her boyfriend, who had winced at the story of her abandoned instrument, bought her a tenor saxophone for her birthday. That’s when she had a realization.
“I can’t put it back on the shelf,” she said, recalling her thoughts at the time. “I have to find a band.”
PHOTOS: Burbank Community Band prepares for Memorial Day performance
A Google search led her to the Burbank Community Band, which had been the Lockheed Concert Band until 1997. A fixture at events such as Burbank’s upcoming Memorial Day service on Monday, the band welcomed her without an audition, even though she was rusty.
The group plays free concerts throughout the year, including some for elementary students, and gets its share of professional performers, said band director Paulette Westphal. But she said several members pulled an instrument out of the closet and started “getting the cobwebs out,” like Hallada.
“It’s a true community band,” Westphal said. “I don’t turn anybody away.”
Despite that openness, the band still struggles to have enough members to play on days like Memorial Day, due to the huge demand for bands for various services throughout the area.
Westphal said the Burbank band will be down 15 members when it tunes up at the war memorials in McCambridge Park on Monday morning, due to the fact that several members belong to multiple bands all playing on that day.
Band member Andre Giacomelli, an 84-year-old from Alhambra who served in the Korean War, plays with several other bands, including the Los Angeles Police Department Concert Band. He said playing at such events fills him with pride for his service, especially during the part of the Armed Forces Medley when “Anchor’s Away” is played.
Giacomelli said he was “lucky” to have survived the Korean War — when he joined the Navy, he didn’t expect to come home, and several of his friends didn’t.
For fellow band member and Navy veteran Sam Engel Sr., 88, who served on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Antietam during World War II, it’s “a way to express patriotic love for the country in a musical way.”
Both Engel and Giacomelli, who play in several area bands, got involved with the Burbank Community Band as retirees, long after their military service and post-war careers had ended.
“It’s one way to keep active,” said Giacomelli, who joined the band only about a year after he ended a 57-year hiatus from playing the clarinet.
“I wanted to stimulate my brain,” Giacomelli said of his return to the instrument. “I had to start from the beginning.”
Some of the band’s oldest members are 90-year-old WWII veterans, Hallada said. She said she thinks playing keeps their minds young, and she hopes to get the same benefits.
“I’m 52,” Hallada said. “I’m hoping I’ll play for the next 40 years. That’ll be fun.”