Hitting a high note

Mike Sciacca

Tom Ridley says there’s no special name for the event being staged by

the Huntington Beach Concert Band on Sunday at the Huntington Beach

Central Library Theater, but it will hardly be just another day in

the park.

What does make the concert special, the band’s director says, is

that it is the 30th anniversary celebration for the largest of the

four, year-round, community bands in Orange County.

The program will encompass a wide range of music.

“We will offer a wide variety of music and there’s certain to be

something for everybody,” said Ridley who will lead the 70-piece

brass, wind and percussion ensemble. “For people who like marches, we

will be playing a few marches. For the people who enjoy show tunes,

we will play those, too -- plus much, much more. It’s definitely

going to be a very fun program.”

In addition to marches by John Phillip Sousa and the works of

Broadway composers George and Ira Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and

Andrew Lloyd Weber, the concert also will offer a symphonic

repertory, classical selections and contemporary pieces. Trombonist

Dan Isselin is the concert’s featured soloist. An arrangement of

“Amazing Grace” and a rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever” will

end the program, Ridley said.

The Huntington Beach Concert Band is composed of professional and

amateur musicians from the area. The band, which holds rehearsals

once a week, performs up to 15 times per year, Ridley said.

The group has performed at such venues as the Richard Nixon

Library in Yorba Linda and for the past 14 years has opened at the

Verizon Theater for the Pacific Symphony, joining the orchestra

onstage for the classical piece, the 1812 Overture.

In addition, it plays the annual Summer Concert Series at

Huntington Beach Central Park.

Ridley has served as the band’s director for the past 26 years,

succeeding former Marina High School band director John Mason. It was

Mason who established the band in February, 1973, and directed its

first concert at the Golden West College Amphitheater, said Linda

Couey, the band’s manager.

Among the 70-piece concert band are five musicians who are charter

members: flutist Jane Wickersham, trombonist Ross Wilson, Will

Tufford and Tom Pfiefer on tenor saxophone and trumpeter Lloyd Glick.

Glick served as manager of the band for its first 25 years.

Another of the band’s trumpeters is Huntington Beach resident Stan

Silverstein.

Silverstein said he joined the concert band 10 years ago after

what he says was a “28-year hiatus” from playing.

“I really didn’t know what I was missing until I joined the band

and began playing again,” the 57-year-old said.

Silverstein worked for six months with a tutor to prepare himself

for joining the concert band. He also has played for nearly 10 years

with the Golden West International Symphonic Band of Golden West

College.

“Through participation with this wonderful concert band I was able

to recapture a part of myself that had become dormant during those 28

years that I didn’t play,” he said. “I had lost that part of me that

had been able to express myself through performance.

“Playing in this band is truly a delight and has become a very

important part of my life. Sunday’s concert will be a celebration for

many of us.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at [email protected].