Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509290001
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEWART MACINNIS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Barry and Donna Tucker took that saying to heart when they invited the Hawkesbury Community Band to the Roanoke Valley as partial repayment for their 1992 teacher exchange to Australia.
Well, said Barry Tucker, band director for Cave Spring High School, "it really is more complicated than that."
"The teacher exchange sort of fell into our lap," he said. "In the Australian system, teachers are encouraged to do an exchange every 10 years or so. Jim Covert was looking for someone on this side to exchange with, so we went there while he took my place."
The Hawkesbury band's visit to Roanoke and a concert tonight grew out of a friendship Tucker struck up in Australia with Jim Campbell, director of the Hawkesbury band. There is no charge for the 7:30 p.m. concert at Cave Spring High School, but Tucker said donations are welcome.
Donna Tucker has done much of the logistical coordination, getting the Aussies here and arranging trips to Williamsburg, Washington, D.C., and New York. When they return to their community outside Sydney, the 47 band members will be able to boast of giving concerts at Virginia's Colonial capital and on the steps of the nation's capitol and seeing a Broadway play.
In addition to the public concerts, The Hawkesbury band, which includes musicians ages 13 to 65, also will give concerts for students at several county schools and for the school system's central office staff.
"This has been a year in the making," Tucker said. "Donna's put in a lot of work organizing it, and I don't think we'll have much of a chance to rest until they're heading back."
"We've set aside a day for them to see Roanoke with their host families, but otherwise they are on a pretty tight schedule," Tucker said.
On the agenda is a practice session with the Cave Spring High School Band. The Cave Spring band will accompany the Hawkesbury band in a portion of tonight's concert, though Tucker said most of the concert will be by the Hawkesbury group alone.
"We tried to figure out how to get the junior high school bands in on it, but the logistics just wouldn't work," he said. "We just couldn't get them all on the stage together. There just isn't enough room."
The high school band members will find the experience rewarding, though. "This is going to be a great cultural exchange for everyone involved," he said.
The next step is to build on the ties established with this visit, Tucker said. That, he hopes, will be done through a visit by an ad hoc area band to Hawkesbury planned for 1997.
"We hope to create a band based on the bands at Cave Spring High School, Cave Spring Junior High School and Hidden Valley Junior High School," he said. "A lot will depend on who is available and the instruments they play."
by CNB