Summer concerts continue

BANGOR – Bangor Band, with conductor Fred Heath, is now enjoying its 146th consecutive season with the summer concert series, which began on June 22. Each concert will feature a wide assortment of music, including marches, overtures, solos, show or movie medleys, and light and lively selections.

“All in all the band will attempt to please the most discriminating ear,” said Bob Pentland, who is both a band member and on the board of directors.

“It’s an organization that I think really serves the community,” said Don Menninghaus, who has been president of the band for the past five years. The band performs year round for patriotic events and holidays, as well as fall concerts.

But the summer concert series is more in keeping with the New England culture of earlier times with free outdoor concerts complete with kids, dogs, balloons, ice cream and fireflies, said Menninghaus, who has been a member of the band since 1978. If people could ignore the traffic on the street “it could be 1860 instead of 2004,” he said.

Bangor Band was founded in January of 1859, Pentland said.

“That first year they played 60 engagements,” he said, adding that the band has had some very well-known composer-conductors over the years, including R. B. Hall, Harvey J. Woods, and Gordon Bowie.

In times past companies such as Dexter Shoe paid employees to participate in the band, Menninghause said. Since there were no radios and recordings the only form of music was live music.

“If you wanted to hear music you had to make it yourself,” Menninghaus said, adding that the other option was to find someone else who was able to produce it.

The band practices once a week from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays at Bangor Parks and Recreation, except during the summer, when most concerts are held on Tuesdays. Bangor Parks and Recreation provides space for practice, space for storage of instruments, transportation for equipment and about 50 percent of the band’s budget, Menninghaus said. Occasionally co-sponsors help fund the band.

“We are developing business sponsors,” Pentland said. Some seven local businesses have sponsored individual concerts for the summer program, he said.

“All our concerts are free to the public. But donations are welcome,” said Menninghaus.

Conductor Heath, who lives in Orono, is in his third summer as conductor of the band. Retired from his job as a music professor at the University of Maine in Orono, Heath plays a variety of brass instruments and is “a very accomplished player in his own right,” Menninghaus said.

Menninghaus, who lives in Bangor and owns Dr. Records in Orono, has been associated with Bangor Band since 1978. He plays trombone, which he has played since fourth grade for 40-plus years. He chose that instrument because “it was the biggest one they’d let you take home,” he said.

Pentland, who works at Bay Village in Bar Harbor, originally played trombone and trumpet. But in 1959, while in high school, he switched to the euphonium at the suggestion of a school band director.

“It was a good move. It was a very good move on my part,” he said. A year after he made the switch Pentland was playing professionally. Following a 23-year period in which he did not play, he began again in 1988 and played in professional bands and community bands in New Jersey, and continued to play when he moved to Lamoine in 1993. He joined Bangor Band sometime around 1997.

“One of the things that excited me about joining the band was its history,” Pentland said. That history includes an extensive music library, most of which “has survived the ravages of time and fire,” he said.

The band currently has about 35 members, most of whom come from Greater Bangor but some of whom come from towns such as Castine, Fairfield and Ellsworth.

Bangor Band’s Summer Concert Series will be held:

. 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 13, Bass Park Bandstand.

. time to be announced Saturday, July 17, Fort Knox.

. 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 20, Bass Park Bandstand.

. 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, Bass Park Bandstand.

. 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 3, Chapin Park.

. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10, Bass Park Bandstand.

For information on the Bangor Band, call Bangor Parks and Recreation at 947-1018. For information on joining the band in September, call Bob Pentland at 667-4874, or Don Menninghaus at 866-7874.