Watsonville Community Band Plays On

Inside the Watsonville High music room Wednesday nights, the Watsonville Community Band practices everything from Wagner opera pieces to traditional marching tunes to selections from Phantom of the Opera and West Side Story.

This varied musical mix comes together for a performance Sunday at the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts. With a year-round practice and performance schedule, the band is ready to put on another free show for the 300-400 concert-goers. The second of four dates in the group’s 63rd Spring Concert Series, it finishes with concerts in Hollister and Santa Cruz.

“It takes us the first couple of performances for us to really get moving, but we had a good concert here in Salinas, so I think it’s going to be a good program,” said Brad Gronroos, assistant conductor and band member. “It’s one of the better venues we get to play in.”

The wide-ranging musical selection is not by happenstance. Conductor Eugene Smith mixes in the different styles and artists to keep things fun for the audience and the band members.

“We’re there just for fun," Smith said. "We’re there because we love to make music and play for people. We have to play music people like.”

The variation on display at the shows goes beyond the music selection. Ages and musical skill cover just as much ground.

“We’re not a beginning band," said Smith. "We do, however, have tremendous variation in musicianship and training and skills and abilities within the band. There are several music teachers and professionals as well as people who just like playing.”

The band has about 35 members who perform regularly. The group’s youngest members are just 15, while the oldest—who plays first-chair alto saxophone—recently celebrated her 90th birthday. Having musicians old and young come together helps the individual musicians and strengthens the band as a whole.

“The students kind of sit with the older people, and there’s a lot of communication and assistance,” said Gronroos, who is also the North Salinas High School band director. “And even the older people, we kind of look at the students for a little fire under our belly. (They) get us to play better, so the young kids don’t show us up.”

Bringing new members to the group is crucial to keeping this community institution sustainable. Smith, who has also worked as a music educator in a number of local schools, says most band members got their start playing in high school bands and music classes—things increasingly difficult to find.

“We sprang from the public-school music programs," he said. "We’re very concerned about the state of music education as a community band.” 

Smith played in the Watsonville Community Band when he was in high school.

“I started in the band as a kid," he said. "I never had private lessons until I went to college as a music major. But I sat next to a fellow named Roy Harris. Now I was a kid, and Roy was probably in his 70s.

"The education I got from that man was priceless. You couldn’t buy that kind of information with lessons and stuff. And that’s just what we do.”