Music Bands Members in Elgin
By Glen Elsasser
A highly unlikely group meets in the band rehearsal room of Elgin High School - youngsters, oldsters, and persons from varied professions. But they share one common interest - their music.
In fact, music has kept this group together since 1950. Known as the Elgin Civic Symphony orchestra, it would have flopped at the start if it hadn't been for the fun performers get out of the music, said Douglas Steensland, conductor.
Steensland remembered the first night as a cold, snowy Thursday in December. "It was a real blizzard, but somehow 25 players showed up and we played a Haydn symphony in its entirety." he said.
The orchestra now has 65 members - 36 in the string section, 13 in the brass section, 10 in the woodwind section, and 6 in the percussion section. They will ring down the 13th season at 8:15p.m. May 11 in the Elgin High School auditorium.
Backgrounds VaryA fourth of the orchestra's members are still in high school. The rest are adults who may be housewives, teachers, dentists, or doctors. All the instrumental music staff of the Elgin public schools play with the orchestra. Their music backgrounds, of course, vary widely.
Steensland, former assistant director of bands at the University of Wisconsin, is now band director at Elgin High school. For 15 years he was first flutist of the Madison (Wis.) Civic symphony, and gave his future wife, Rachel, flute lessons. She is now a flutist with the orchestra; their son, Mark, is a violinist.
Miss Marios Laffey, associate conductor and concertmaster, played the violin in the Chicago Women's Symphony under such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Izler Solomon, and George Enesco. Hundreds of Elgin children have known her as the director of the Elgin High school orchestra.
Among the housewives is Mrs. Frank Brodsky who raised a daughter and two sons - one an engineer and another a nuclear physicist - and still found time to keep up with her music. She has been a violinist with various trios and quartets, the Elgin Musicians club, and a chamber music group.
Surgeon Is ClarinetistDr. Frederick Schurmeier, a surgeon, began playing clarinet in his first year in high school, and has never lost interest despite a busy schedule. He played with the Carleton College Symphony band, the University of Chicago Symphony orchestra, and the Elgin Little symphony.
Altho many members play only in their spare time, the orchestra maintains a regular schedule. On the average there are four concerts during the symphony's season which stretches from September thru May.
"We practice two hours on Thursday night," Steensland said, "but during the last two weeks before a concert we practice twice a week." There are at least 10 rehearsals for each concert, he added.
This summer the orchestra will present two concerts in the new bandshell in Elgin's Wing park. The orchestra, which is supported by Elgin Community college and the Elgin board of education, has never performed outside Elgin or on television.
Wide RepertoireIts repertoire is as widely varied as its performers' backgrounds. A few years ago, for instance, the orchestra performed three unpublished Hasidic dances and an overture by Dr. Leon Stein, a Chicago composer.
In addition to the familiar music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner, the orchestra has played such madoren composers as Samuel Barber, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Aaron Copland, and Benjamin Britten. "We make a point of playing at least one or two contemporary works a year," Steensland said.
