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Minnesota band with roots in box of cereal is still feeling its oats in the Brooklyns
Anna Pratt, Special to the Star Tribune
It’s said that a box of cereal led to the formation of the
Brooklyn Community Band.
A Brooklyn Center resident named Jim Stumpfa reported to
General Mills that he found “something unusual” in his cereal, according to an
old newspaper clipping on the topic. A company representative, John Larson,
went to Stumpfa’s home to hand-deliver a fresh box.
While Larson was there, a saxophone in the living room caught
his eye. The two men got to talking about music, and it wasn’t long before the
band was born.
That was 50 years ago, and the Brooklyn Community Band is
still going strong. The group, co-sponsored by Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn
Park, is wrapping up its summer concert season with a performance on Monday,
July 29, at the Town Green Band Shell in Maple Grove. That will be followed by
an anniversary party, said band director Jane Ruohoniemi.
In honor of its milestone, the band will play an original
work by Minnesota composer Timothy Mahr titled “Golden Opportunity.” The band
received a $5,000 grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council that made
the commissioned work possible.
In addition to the band’s golden anniversary, the title
alludes to the notion that “we’re still looking for opportunities to improve
and be better,” said Ruohoniemi, who played drums in the band in the late
1980s.
The band is performing the piece at each of its concerts this
year, along with several Minnesota-themed selections and other favorites from
its archives. “It’s a year of remembering,” Ruohoniemi said.
Keeping it fun
The band fluctuates between 35 and 45 members ranging in age
from 18 to 85. Members are supposed to be high school graduates, although in a
jam exceptions occasionally are made. For example, more percussion players are
needed, so Ruohoniemi’s teenage son, Brian, is playing in that section.
The group doesn’t do auditions. It’s about keeping it
“lighthearted and fun,” Ruohoniemi said. “Band members don’t want to practice
10 hours a day.”
One player hadn’t picked up her instrument in 40 years when
she joined the band. “She said she only knew three notes,” Ruohoniemi said.
“She was real nervous for a long time.”
Ruohoniemi told her, “ ‘Just don’t play the riffs you don’t
know, till you get your chops back.’ The next year I had her playing solos.”
She encourages others to do the same. “Music is a gift to
everyone,” she said. Helping people tap into that, “That’s where our niche in
the world is.”
Looking back
Sally Schilling, a clarinet player with the band since 1970,
has recently become its informal historian. She’s filled up two big albums with
ephemera from the band’s 50 years, which she’s been lugging to its concerts.
The albums contain newspaper clippings, concert photos,
announcements for events at local nursing homes, parks and other community
centers, and even weddings.
Schilling remembers one performance when it was pouring rain.
“We played only for ourselves,” she said. Another time, it was over 100
degrees, and only one person attended.
“We’ve had a lot of fun through the years,” Schilling said.
But the group also has had funding struggles and at one point, it looked as if
it would call it quits. That’s when “the Lions Club bailed us out,” she said.
Members do they’re part; the band is all-volunteer and
participants pay membership fees.
A family tradition
Mary Sorenson grew up going to band concerts as a youngster
in the mid-70s. Both of her parents and several other family members spent many
years in the band. So it was only natural that after she graduated from high
school in 1981, she would continue the tradition.
She wasn’t the best of flute players when she started out,
but “I got better over the years,” she said.
Besides, nobody’s ego gets in the way, Sorenson said.
“Everyone gets along. People help each other out. It’s a good, cohesive group.”
And it’s an opportunity to meet people from all walks of life
who share a love for music.
Given that “there are so many changes in life, with people
moving around, job changes. It’s neat to have something constant,” Sorenson
said.
Two charter members
Carol Abild, a charter member, joined the band at her
sister-in-law’s urging. She’d been a tuba player in high school, but the
then-12-member band had four tubas, so she switched to the French horn.
Her mother, who had played piano for silent movies, instilled
a love of music in her. For Abild and her siblings, “It wasn’t a question of
whether we would play an instrument, but which one,” she said.
She’s stayed with it because “it’s just a constant enjoyment
of music, learning new pieces,” she said.
Another founding member, drummer Donald Severson Sr., signed
up after seeing an advertisement. His wife, Mickey, was a tuba player in the
band early on, as well.
Severson took a hiatus at one point when work got busy, then
returned to the band nearly a dozen years ago. “It was a strange experience. I
had the music, my hands responded to what I could see,” he said. “I got used to
it again. It’s like riding a bicycle. It comes back.”
The band is fun but also offers a sense of accomplishment, he
said. “There’s something, an ineffable feeling, on a rare occasion, when
everything seems to go right. You’re in a group and all of a sudden, you become
one.”
Anna Pratt is a Minneapolis freelance writer.
