THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607190239
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Random Rambles
SOURCE: Tony Stein
LENGTH: 77 lines
John Philip Sousa died in 1932, so even if I could figure out computers, I couldn't reach him on the Internet. But maybe I'll crank up a Ouija board because I've got a message for him.
It's this:
``Yo, J.P., if you want to hear your masterpiece, `Stars and Stripes Forever,' played to perfection, catch the Tidewater Winds. Their version is patriotic enough to make a statue wave a flag.''
Even with the Ouija board, it's going to be tough contacting Sousa. But you're reading this, so take a lesson. Take a listen. Catch the Tidewater Winds tonight or during the next two weeks.
The Tidewater Winds is a professional concert band organized by Sidney Berg, the major guru of band music in the Tidewater area for more than five decades. Each summer, the Winds play a series of free concerts in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach. That's free as in walk in, sit down and enjoy a couple of hours of wonderful music.
And stand up and clap your hands when the band plays its final encore. It's ``Stars and Stripes Forever'' with the brass section up front tooting its collective lungs out.
Berg was band director at Norfolk's Maury High for 19 years and built a reputation for top-quality music. Then he was director of music education for all the Norfolk schools. He was also playing percussion for the Virginia Symphony, which is where the notion to form the Winds hit him like one of his sticks on a drum head.
``I looked around the orchestra and saw all these wonderful wind players who didn't play during the summer,'' he says. In one of those old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movies, the next line would have been, ``Let's put on a show!'' For Berg, it was, ``Let's form a band!''
The Norfolk schools agreed to be a sponsor, which gave the band tax-free status. The year was 1984, so the band is in the middle of its 12th season.
In those old Mickey and Judy movies, everything falls together click-click-click, no sweat. Not in real life. It costs about $90,000 to create a Winds season. Support money comes from municipal fine arts commissions, the musicians' union, various foundations and private donations, but Berg says it's a never-ending chase after the dollars necessary to fund the Winds.
He's putting about 65 players on the stage for each concert. The professional musicians in the group get $45 for each rehearsal or concert. That's a special summer concert band fee approved by their union. Non-pros get $15 per rehearsal or concert, though there are some high school youngsters who play for free.
Four of those kids will be center stage this coming week. The Winds will play a Leroy Anderson number called ``Sandpaper Ballet'' that features a soft-shoe sound. Percussionists Jeffrey Barnard, Erika Cusimano, Elizabeth Thiele and Michael Weittenhiller, all from Kempsville High, will solo.
I always wonder why school music programs are routinely threatened with the budget ax when money gets tight. The algebra, geometry and trigonometry I had to take in high vanished from my mind about 30 seconds after the final exams. Sounds of the music appreciation course I took 53 years ago still echo in my head. Music, whether you play an instrument or just love to listen, is a life-long companion. No, I'm not saying hand every kid a horn or a fiddle or a CD player, but never toss off music as a ``frill.''
I struggle to play a trumpet, and every now and then something comes out that makes me smile to myself and say, ``Hey, I have always loved that song and now I can play it.'' For me, that's a thrill, not a frill.
The Winds are a thrill, too. They'll be playing tonight at the Wells Theater in Norfolk, Monday night at Great Bridge High, Tuesday at Kempsville High, Wednesday at the 24th Street Park in Virginia Beach and Friday at Western Branch Middle School. All start at 7:30 p.m. Don't just sit around muttering that galloping development is killing the quality of life in Tidewater. Go catch the Winds and savor a real slice of quality of life.
Like I said, it's free. But Miz Phyllis and I are going to make a donation because the Tidewater Winds surely deserve our support as well as our applause. I can't play my trumpet worth a hoot (or a toot) but I can write a check. The address is The Tidewater Winds, c/o Sidney Berg, 4043 N. Witchduck Road, Virginia Beach 23455.
It takes the sound of money to keep the sound of music alive and, so help me John Philip Sousa, the Winds are well worth it. by CNB