With a smile, Leo Henning explains why bands like the Southwest Community Concert Band exist.
”I guess the real goal of the band is to provide an opportunity for people who play a musical instrument to perform on an amateur basis,” says the 70-year-old band director after a recent under-the-stars performance by the band in Palos Park.
”In the southwest suburbs, we have hundreds of people who, after they leave high school, have no place to play music,” says Henning, who has worked with the band since 1987. ”That`s why bands like ours are formed.”
The byproduct is a boon for the southwest suburbs. In the last 10 years, the band has performed dozens of community concerts, bringing music to parks, village halls and school auditoriums.
”What we try to do as a community band is spread culture through the communities and acquaint people with live music,” says Henning, who has been teaching music at Brother Rice High School on Chicago`s Southwest Side and St. Laurence High School in Burbank for more than three decades.
”Many adults, for whatever reason, never get a chance to go to a place like Ravinia Park or Grant Park to hear live music. In the southwest suburbs, their only outlet is to go to a local park to hear a local band.
”I`ve always felt that the South Side and south suburbs have been somewhat culturally deprived. The band is a good way to reach the community and maybe arouse interest in a little culture. It`s not that people don`t care about music, it`s just that little has been offered to them.”
The band plays as many as a dozen concerts a year. They include a concert in September in Worth, a Christmas concert in December usually held in Worth, and a spring event called the Cavalcade of Bands held in May at Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills.
The cavalcade is the band`s biggest event. Three other community bands play besides the Southwest band. This year the event drew bands from Palatine, Glenview and Joliet.
The band`s next scheduled performance is an outdoor concert Sept. 16 at Homerding Park, 116th Street and Oak Park Avenue in Worth.
”The band also breaks up into smaller ensembles,” Henning says. ”For example, we just provided the village of Western Springs with performances from our brass and woodwinds ensembles.”
The band rehearses every Thursday for two hours in a gym at the Worth Park District`s Charles M. Christian Center, 115th Street and Beloit Avenue. The park district is a sponsor of the band by virtue of providing rent-free space. Other sponsors are the Alsip Park District, which offers a small amount of funding, and the Palos Park Fine Arts Association, which donates money the band uses for college scholarships for its younger members.
The band was formed in 1982 when Milton Potter, the former band director at Sandburg High School in Orland Park, contacted several of his former music students and high school band members, including Lois Henning, Leo`s daughter- in-law.
”He thought the band would be a good outlet for those people who wanted to play music with other people,” says Lois Henning, who plays French horn and is also the band`s secretary-treasurer. ”And he was right.”
Potter found a home at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills and began holding band practices, drawing a dozen or so people, including Therese Sundberg, another French horn player who joined and immediately became the band`s manager.
”Our first concert was a Christmas concert that drew a lot of attention,” says Sundberg, an Alsip resident. ”People started hearing about the band and would come up to me and say, `Gee, I played in high school, and I would really like to keep playing.`
”Plus, everybody had a friend who played an instrument and wanted to play with a band.”
Within a year or so, the band had more than 40 members, and the number of performances started to increase.
A couple of years later, Potter moved to Wisconsin, and two new band directors took over. In 1987, the job of director opened up again, and Lois Henning thought her father-in-law would be the perfect candidate.
”Leo typifies the voluntarism that is the nucleus of an organization like the band,” she says. ”Although he receives a small amount of money for his role, it`s really his love of music and his interest in people that drive him.”
While the band has grown in number, it also has become more proficient after a decade of performing, its members say.
”What has really grown is the band members` abilities,” Sundberg says.
”We`re getting much better, and we`re getting much better quality players. Many of our members are band directors at high schools and choir directors at churches.
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”But we also have doctors, business people and housewives,” adds Sundberg, who owns a sewing-machine store in Orland Park.
”Members of the band come from all walks of life,” says Leo Henning, who lives in Orland Park. ”They come from all across the southwest suburban communities, and they range in age from 17 to 83.”
The band also is a family affair, Henning says.
”We have several families involved, such as my own,” he says. Besides his daughter-in-law, the band includes his wife, Rosemary, who plays bass drum. His son Patrick, a brass player, acted as guest director earlier this year when Leo Henning was sidetracked by surgery.
Most of the people involved with the band don`t just play music, Sundberg says. ”Because this is a team effort, our members are also in charge of collecting the sheet music, taking care of the uniforms and running other band business,” she says. ”A few people donate a couple of hours of their time each week, others a lot more.”
The band`s repertoire has expanded over the years and encompasses a wide range of music. ”Leo has always been cognizant of the public`s tastes,”
Sundberg says. ”He puts on concerts that satisfy everybody`s musical interests.”
At a recent performance, selections included the theme from the ”Robin Hood” movie starring Kevin Costner, music from the musicals ”Miss Saigon”
and ”Phantom of the Opera,” and what Leo Henning calls the ”old chestnuts”: classic band music from composers such as John Philip Sousa.
”I believe we put on a pretty good performance for an amateur band,”
Henning says. ”It seems that people appreciate our performances.”
”The band is getting recognition now, and people are out there looking for our concerts, following us from performance to performance,” Sundberg adds.
”People participate in the band because of their love of music. A lot of people love the idea of playing with a group, and this gives them the chance.” ”When we`re all performing, it`s a tremendous feeling,” Henning says. ”It`s wonderful to work with a group such as this one.”