If you ask a broad group of people about the best-kept secret on any topic, the answer will inevitably be a paradox. The most repeated response must be correct; but if everyone knows, it isn’t much of a secret now, is it?  

If you were asked about the best-kept secret on the northeast Indiana performing arts scene, you’d be excused if you had not heard of the Fort Wayne Area Community Band.

If you have not heard of them, an introduction awaits you Tuesday, May 2, at Purdue University Fort Wayne’s Music Center as they take on sci-fi theme songs during their spring concert, Beyond the Stars.

Musicians find a home

A good community band provides as much value to its performers as it does its audience. It’s an opportunity to make fine music in a group with others. A chance to feel the joy of performance intertwined with the thrill of collaboration. A continuation of a lifetime of musical practice, inarguably one of the most positive exercises one can do for the brain.

This band was founded in 1979 and has grown to about 80 members, who rub elbows tightly in the practice room at PFW Music Center.  They have an agreement with the university that gives them weekly access to the room, furniture, and percussion.

The band’s leadership has a background in music education, and it shows. While the quality of scholastic music education is always at risk when budget time rolls around, our area boasts high-quality instrumental music departments throughout its school districts, and the Fort Wayne Area Community Band sees themselves as proud extensions of that. 

“The band is the end product of music education in our schools,” Associate Conductor David Blackwell said. “People who learned and got it … they’re here with us now.”

Kids at heart

Before dismissing this company-in-residence as some dry introspective journey, consider this: They can really play. 

The joy of the ensemble is palpable at rehearsal. The distribution of age is extraordinary as energetic recent college grads compare notes with septuagenarians. Imagine a high school band room populated entirely with responsible, committed adults. Sure, there’s a wise guy in the second clarinets who theatrically bemoans the slights his section is enduring. Just like high school.  But these are adults, and his delivery is polished, measured, and appropriate.  It earns a welcome chuckle break, but it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the  group.

These adults are led by Head Conductor Dr. Scott Humphries, who also serves as associate professor of music and director of bands and music education at Manchester University. He clearly relishes working with grown-ups, yet giddily describes the sound of Ewoks killing Stormtroopers over and over. He’s funny, and the rehearsal is fun. That’s a big part of what they want the audience to feel.  The band wants them to have fun.

In that spirit, the Fort Wayne Area Community Band’s first performance of 2023 features an outer space theme. Listeners will be treated to familiar selections from favorite films like Star Wars and Star Trek, as well as the video game Halo and a few well-chosen pieces from Gustav Holst’s The Planets Suite. As befits a group made up of former band kids, a good theme should never be wasted, and they want the audience to be part of the setting at PFW Music Center. Band members will be performing in costume, and they would love to see the audience dress for the occasion as well. 

Finding magic

The rehearsal has a few grueling moments.  Legendary composer John Williams wrote these iconic themes for strings, and the band has none. The woodwinds get the heavy lifting, and that’s especially tough when a band only plays together for 90 minutes a week. The practice moves quickly though, and there’s efficient progress made through some tough passages. 

Just before Humphries turns the band over to Assistant Director Susan Jehl, there are a couple of those magic moments where the ensemble just clicks, the tempo is just right, and everyone nails the tough notes. It seems like it will go on forever, and you can’t believe it’s all holding together. Then it sort of all falls apart because you haven’t practiced that next part together yet. But it was cool and fun, and it breeds the confidence to know that the ensemble can do it again.

That’s what a good community band brings.  The sheer joy and wonder of making music together. 

“Music is a lifelong avocation, and this band encourages people to seek out the opportunity to pursue it,” Jehl said. 

What’s next?

After the opening concert May 2, the band returns to Earth for a summer concert series at Foellinger Theatre, plus a bonus performance on Aug. 15 from the hillside across the river at Promenade Park. 

As they do every year, the band will also provide music for graduation ceremonies for the University of Saint Francis and Ivy Tech, as well as a synchronized soundtrack to the Three Rivers Festival fireworks show downtown. 

These are rare opportunities to hear fine music played by local talent in glorious outdoor venues. 

The band likes to call themselves the best-kept secret in Fort Wayne. That title may be in question, but this band is definitely a secret that ought to be shared.

Schedule and ticket information are available at fwacb.org.