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Dear Upper Valley Community Band,
We’ve had a very successful summer, with several strong outdoor concerts and vigorous participation in parades on our handsome new trailer. We’ve played at a new venue (the Shaker Museum) and have continued our support of good causes and community institutions (the Prouty, Lebanon Elks, Wheelock Terrace).
What is next?
It seems a good moment to reflect, and to share aspirations, collectively. It seems timely to follow up on the good meeting we had at the First Congregational Church last November. The Board and I would like to convene a gathering—part social, part musical—at which we take stock and make plans for the coming months. This meeting/rehearsal will take place this Monday, September 19, at 7 p.m., at our regular recent rehearsal site—Our Savior Lutheran Church in Hanover.
Here are a few considerations for us to ponder.
• Were we in pre-pandemic mode, we’d be planning a pair of formal concerts. Is that possibility still of interest? If so, what venues, and perhaps themes, do we have in mind?
• Approximately 20-25 of you have been regular participants during the past six months. A few others have dropped in on occasion.
Over 140 people receive our Newsletter. What might induce more of you to become regular participants? What factors have made you hesitate?
Our ensemble may be capable of taking on more challenging music if we have more folks participating.
It is easier to plan a rehearsal if one is confident that players will be present.
This seems an important subject for a conversation to which I hope many of you will contribute. We need your help in shaping the Band’s future.
• Other potential topics include
o a review of our current Covid protocols.
o educational outreach opportunities. (For example, our colleague Dom DeFrancisco directs the bands program at Lebanon High School. How might we help him?)
We will converse for about an hour, then take a break and play during the second hour.
We hope you will attend this important meeting!
Thanks very much.
warm regards,
Mark Nelson, Music Director
And the UVCB Board: Mark Nunlist, Tom McNeil, Bette Roberto, David Perlman
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