Forty years ago, Therese “Terry” Sundberg was out of college with a degree in music education and starting a family. A graduate of Richards High School in Oak Lawn, Sundberg started getting together with other people who were in band.
Word-of-mouth spread to people from other high schools with the help of Milton Potter, who once directed the band at Sandburg High School in Orland Park.
Those connections formed the foundations of what became the Southwest Community Concert Band, with Potter as its first conductor. Sundberg, a French horn player from Alsip, was one of the band’s charter members and plays with the group.
“It kept growing and it keeps making more music,” Sundberg said. “We keep getting new people.”
The band will perform its 40th Anniversary Concert at 2 p.m. Sunday at the United Methodist Church of New Lenox, 339 W. Haven Ave. Admission is free, and the concert will feature selections from throughout the band’s history as well as the world premiere of a composition by Robert Sheldon called “Freefall,” commissioned for the occasion.
“That’s exciting for me,” Sundberg said. “Just looking back and saying ‘I’ve been here for 40 years’ is amazing to me.”
The Southwest Community Concert Band has always been active in Chicago’s southwest suburbs, though its base of operations has moved over the years, according to President Jim Valtman, of Minooka. As a nonprofit organization, the band relies on donations and the proceeds of paid performances, as well as buildings willing to host it.
The band once practiced at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills. Then they played at First Nazarene Church in Lemont and Eagle Rock Community Church in Homer Glen before landing at the Orland Park Cultural Center. But band members are uncertain it they still be there after this calendar year.
“It’s just up in the air,” Valtman said. “We have a search team out looking for new locations. The best of all worlds would be to have a home we can perform in.”
Sundberg, now also the band’s business manager, librarian and grants chairperson, said she never thought about the longevity of the organization until those moves. That the band held together through the changes was a sign of something special, she said.
“I thought, well, this is going to keep going,” Sundberg said. “People felt so strong that they wanted a place to play.”
The band also had a few conductor changes in its early days. After a couple of years with Potter at the helm, Neil Dunlap, a jazz trumpeter and conductor from Beverly, took the baton. Leo Henning, a longtime Southland director with history at St. Laurence and Brother Rice high schools, took over a few years later and helped create a governing board for the band.
When Henning retired, he passed the baton to Ray Forlenza, the band director for Kirby Elementary District 140, who has led the musicians for more than 20 years.
“Good people are involved,” Forlenza said. “It’s a good way for them to escape the stress of their jobs or anything that may be going on in their life. For two hours a week we play music, and every six weeks or so we put on a nice performance to go out and showcase what they’ve been working with.”
And those musicians come from a variety of professions. While the Southwest Community Band has attracted a lot of band directors who enjoy playing in their free time, Valtman said the demographics include players in their 20s to late 80s, music educators, people who perform for a living as well as physicians and mechanics.
“It’s a very, very diverse organization,” Valtman said.
Forlenza, of Tinley Park, said the band members make connections through their shared language.
“They find the love of music and they’re able to continue on this passion and share it with others,” he said. “The people are just very dedicated to what they do. When they come to perform or rehearse, they take what they do pretty seriously and take a lot of pride in what they do.”
The band is always looking for brass, woodwind and percussion musicians with some high school or college experience. The band will take members as young as 16, but Sundberg said they are not allowed to give up school band or obligations associated with it. It also works with college students who may be home on break or recently graduated. Members rehearse weekly, with multiple indoor and outdoor concerts throughout the year.
“We do a lot of cool things, musically speaking,” Valtman said.
The band also has outreach programs to offer youth music education through an annual winter band day and summer band camp. Forlenza has overseen those elements, which have reached close to 3,000 students.
The anniversary concert is part of the band’s first full concert season since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For roughly two years, the band did not make any music, erring on the side of caution and shutting down operations, Valtman said.
“That was really tough for everybody,” Forlenza said. “It’s good to get back into playing and at the level we’re able to perform at once again.”
Valtman said it was a great feeling when the band started rehearsing in an outdoor pavilion and then playing park concerts again. But it is even better that they have been back to a full schedule in time for the 40th anniversary.
“When we came back full force this spring, everyone got into it,” Valtman said. “Musicians seem to spring back. I’m not quite sure what’s in the DNA or the attitude. It helps having a group of people that are dedicated to it.”
While Sundberg may be the longest-tenured example of that dedication, she is far from the only example. The shared passion for music held by members of the Southwest Community Concert Band has been key to its longevity.
“It takes a village to do this, to run this band,” she said. “We’ve been doing pretty good, and we have people who are willing to help. It’s here to stay.”
For more information about the band, go to swcommunityband.com.
Bill Jones is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.