Calling it the UNLV Community Concert Band is apt, because that's exactly what this group is — a community. The band’s 70 members are of different backgrounds — current students and recent retirees, new transplants and lifelong Las Vegans — all bound together by music.
For many, music has always been part of their lives, but careers, families, and responsibilities took priority. As their schedules eased up, they felt the call of their instruments and their audiences again.
“I think [music] is just something that's placed in your heart,” says music professor Anthony LaBounty, director and master conductor of the Community Concert Band.
“People will say ‘Hey, I haven't played since the Vietnam War. Can I get my clarinet? Do you have a spot for me?’ We have a former FBI agent who plays euphonium, a retired professor, a couple of surgeons, and small business owners. We have all kinds of players. The answer is always yes.”
The Community Band musicians are dedicated. They practice individually throughout the week, but on Wednesdays come together in the Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center for rehearsals.
“I came across this band through a series of connections,” says John Davis, a trumpet player who joined the group after 50 years away from the instrument. “My rule is: on Wednesday nights, nothing happens. Because I’ll be [at practice].
“And, then on Thursday, I start waiting for Wednesday again.”
But don’t let the come-all openness mislead, french horn player Patty Duffey says. Their concerts often feature guest vocalists and local entertainers and make affordable, professional-level performances accessible to locals.
“I always hear people sharing that they expected to hear a school band with squeaky clarinets and out-of-pitch horns; they're blown away by the level of musicianship that exists in the band,” she says.
She credits that, in part, to the shared experiences of traveling to perform both locally and in concerts as far away as Italy, Ireland, and Austria — and Mesquite, Nevada.
“It's so much fun because you really get to know your band members more [on trips], and the more you build a relationship with your fellow band members, the better you play together,” she says. “It's on a different level than playing with a whole bunch of strangers, because now you've become friends.”
Because the band has uplifted so many of its members through the shared joy of music, taking that music to help the community was the natural next step.
The band performs at churches and special interest clubs to raise money for such organizations as Helping Hands, Catholic Charities, the Foundation Assisting Seniors, the LEAP Alliance, the Sun City Italian American Club, and Jewish Friendship Club. In February, a performance raised funds for Friends in the Desert, a nonprofit dedicated to feeding the homeless.
Those charitable partnerships do more than provide the band venues throughout the community and drive concert attendance, LaBounty notes.
“Performing music for the soul's sake of doing it is good and fulfilling, but here we’re also actually helping someone else.”
As for the current students in the Community Band, they can get credit for participating. But LaBounty tells them the biggest benefit is that they become part of something bigger as Rebels. “I always tell them it doesn't matter if it's the golf team or this band or the debate team: If they're doing something excellent, the reputation grows. It brings value to your degree,” he says.
