Front row, left to right:–Herb Whiteley–Jay Guelfi–Emily Kroner–Brian Lauthen Second row, left to right:–Jeffrey Tolar–Devyn Gay–Jerry Loyet–Rob Rypka–Keith Pollok–Chuck Danner–Ed Harvey–Jan Luedtke–Marilyn Marshall Third row, center: Verlin Richardson, conductor
By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
It’s not for fame. It’s not for money.
It’s not for power. Nor is it for a lack of other options.
The 13 central Illinois residents who are members of the Central Illinois Brass Choir are part of the group so that they can continue playing their instruments and make music collectively.
It’s that love and passion which brings them together for regular rehearsals and for an assortment of performances, especially around the holidays.
“Playing has always been an important part of my life,” tuba player Ed Harvey said. “I have played pretty much continuously since fourth grade.
“Not only is it personally rewarding, it keeps your senses sharp and I meet a lot of great people and make a lot of friends in ensembles that have the same interests as I do.”
Harvey’s 37-year career working in parks and recreation included 11 years as the executive director of the Northbrook Park District.
Mahomet’s Verlin Richardson is the group’s director and he is surrounded by an accomplished group which consists of four French horns, four trumpets, three trombones, one tuba and one euphonium.
“The Champaign-Urbana community and surrounding towns are wonderful for interest in music and the arts,” he said. “Basically, it’s a double quintet, plus we’ve added a few (others).
“I’m thrilled to have a full horn section this year.”
The adults in the Central Illinois Brass Choir bring various resumes and often participate in other groups or ensembles.
What they share is a desire to keep music as an important focus of their lives.
That is particularly true for trumpet player Jay Guelfi, who works in information technology at the University of Illinois.
“Music is really what helps keep me sane,” Guelfi said. “I’ve long called rehearsals my ‘weekly therapy.’
“It’s a chance to unwind, to exercise a different part of my brain and to express myself in creative ways. In fact, it’s really filled this role for most of my life.
“The best thing about music is that you don’t need to be a professional musician to perform. And there are so many different styles that you can always find a group that fits your particular tastes.”
Another trumpet player, Parkland College nursing student Devyn Gay, credits the presence of music as being instrumental in his life.
“Music has gotten me through the roughest patches of my life and focusing on that was a great outlet for me,” Gay said. “It also amplified the pleasure of some of my achievements. I have even associated certain pieces to events that have happened in my life.”
Trombone player Rob Rypka said music has been a prominent part of his life as well.
“Music was key to my earlier years,” Rypka said. “My entire social life revolved around the friends I made in the music program. These days, I appreciate the connection music brings with my children, through listening and performance.”
Richardson selects the music and aims for a variety.
“We prepare for the liturgical season, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play other types of music,” Richardson said. “We look for seasonal music, sacred music and also secular music.”
Guelfi likes the way Richardson mixes up the play list.
“Verlin’s a great conductor, and he really looks for music that we’ll have fun playing,” Guelfi said. “He’s very eclectic. We’ve done everything from ‘The Pink Panther’ to baroque.”
Rypka also likes the assortment.
“The group’s instrumentation means we can get opportunities to play some different parts than we would in an orchestra or band setting, which can be a nice change in perspective, even in familiar music,” Rypka said. “I also get a chance to play with some friends I don’t see in other groups.”
Group members bring a variety of occupations to the band room and well as a wide range of experience.
Herb Whiteley played the trumpet in high school in Connecticut and in college at the University of Maine. The dean at the University of Illinois of the College of Veterinary Medicine from 2001-2013, Whiteley played for a few years after college before taking a self-imposed break.
“Stopped playing for about 30 years,” Whiteley said. “Started playing again five years ago.”
Emily Kroner had a similar void. She took up the French Horn as a fifth-grader and kept with it through her high school years at Mahomet-Seymour.
After a layoff of nearly two decades, the owner of Lucky Moon Pies & More took advantage of the opportunity to return to an activity she cherished.
“Studying and playing music is very personal to me,” Kroner said. “I do not play as often as I used to, but I consider it as an intellectual pursuit and plan to play as long as I physically can.
“It is sad for me to meet people that say they used to play and stopped.”
Trombone player Chuck Danner is one who started and hasn’t quit.
“I have played trombone for 63 years,” Danner said. “I started playing trombone because my band director thought it would suit me, and it did.”
Another trombone player, Keith Pollok, has a career that is almost as long. He started on his instrument 62 years ago.
After retiring from his job in data processing, he has more time to devote to his hobby.
“Having been retired for 14 years, a large focus of my life has been music, both in playing and listening to it,” Pollok said.
With most members of the Central Illinois Brass Choir juggling a number of obligations, Richardson appreciates the commitment group members make to practice on their own. They come together at rehearsals to fine-tune the sound.
“Many people are playing in other groups or have their own jobs,” he said. “I don’t want to take too much time.
“It’s so rewarding to work with people who want to be there and take the time out of their schedules. Interested people make all the difference.”
The group played publicly together for the first time in 2018 and made a connection.
“Everywhere we go, people are very receptive,” Richardson said.
Some members of the Central Illinois Brass Choir chose their own instruments while others had the selection made for them.
“I asked for a trumpet, so naturally my dad brought home a trombone,” Pollok said.
Harvey started on the tuba as a seventh-grader. Fifty-eight years later, he’s still playing.
“As a kid, I always wanted to play a brass instrument,” Harvey said. “In elementary school (Thornburn, in Urbana), they were only starting students on string instruments so I actually started playing the viola.
“I guess I whined enough until my mom arranged to rent a cornet and for me and to get lessons with a UI grad student. I studied the cornet for three years. When I got in Urbana Junior High School, the band director realized I wasn’t going anywhere on the cornet and changed me to tuba.
“The rest is history.”
French horn player Marilyn Marshall didn’t play an instrument while in elementary school.
“My parents thought piano lessons were a better use of my time,” she said. “I started in eighth-grade after our band teacher, who was teaching a new general music course to eighth-graders at the time, recruited me.
“Essentially he had no French horn players and thought I might be able to fill a slot. It was kind of by accident that I came to play the horn, but after all, it is the best instrument.”
According to Kroner, there is a sense of community within the Central Illinois Brass Choir.
“I love playing with Central Illinois Brass because we are a friendly group that shares the common interest of playing a brass instrument,” she said.
As a child, Guelfi was involved in the conversation about what instrument he should play.
“In school, the music teacher talked with us about different families of instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion,” Guelfi said. “Then anyone who wanted to play an instrument was allowed to come to school one night and try different instruments.
“I’ve always loved the brass, and the trumpet in particular. Trumpets always seem to get the coolest fanfares, and have such a bright, happy sound. I don’t think that I tried out any other instruments. My parents rented a cornet for me, which I had until eighth grade.”
Guelfi eventually got an instrument to call his own.
“In junior high, several of the previous first chairs had silver trumpets,” he said, “so, I saved up a bunch of money, and my parents helped me buy my first trumpet, the silver B-flat that I still play.
“In high school, I started getting involved in orchestras. In orchestra, trumpet parts come in all sorts of keys. It seems it’s whatever was convenient for the composer. A ‘C’ trumpet made some of those transpositions a lot easier, so again I saved up, and bought my ‘C.’ “
For French horn player Jan Luedtke, the instrument she has played now for 15 years came after trying out others first.
“In my school band program, beginning students were given a choice of only a few different instruments to learn, and then were able to switch to a greater variety the next school year,” Luedtke said. “I started learning violin in third grade, but I realized violins don’t play in marching bands, so in fourth grade when we were given the option to join band, I switched to trumpet, since it had fewer buttons than a clarinet.
“But my oldest brother already played trumpet, so in fifth grade when we were given the option to choose one of the broader variety of instruments, I chose French horn since the fewest people had chosen that instrument.”
Central Illinois Brass Choir group members have a wide variety of music they enjoy playing and an equal number of reasons for their preferences.
“My favorite genre of music to play is modern classical,” Gay said, “because 20th century composers contributed many creative elements that, in my opinion, gave the pieces more character and a more free imagination of what the pieces can portray.”
Harvey said different groups provide different opportunities.
“I enjoy every type of music,” Harvey said. “By playing in several ensembles of varying sizes I get exposed to everything from marches to symphonic transcriptions to brass choir music to brass quintet music.”
Guelfi went a different direction with his answer.
“My favorite music to perform is classical,” he said.
Brian Lauthen, a French horn player who teaches Latin at Urbana University High School, said playing any music is fine with him.
“I don’t have a favorite,” Lauthen said. “I like being able to play all different types.
“I like playing brass choir music. It’s sort of like a larger version of a brass quintet. I like the brass sound and it usually has good parts for the horns, which you don’t always get in orchestra or band music.”
Pollok offered an emphatic choice.
“Jazz is my favorite music,” he said.
Added Whiteley: “Baroque music is my favorite.”
For Kroner, a particular style of music is not her top priority.
“Pieces that feature soaring horn parts are, of course, preferred,” she said.
Richardson, who was the band director at Champaign’s Garden Hills Elementary School for more than two decades, is not the only person associated with the band who has experience as a teacher or band director at a school.
Danner worked as a high school band director for five years before changing professions.
Marshall, whose first undergraduate degree was in music, taught vocal and general music in a small district west of Springfield (Ashland) for seven years.
Euphonium player Jerry Loyet worked with the band at Champaign Central for years.
Richardson retired from the Champaign Unit 4 school district in 2007. He said he now has the best of all worlds.
“Some people struggle in retirement because they don’t have something to do,” he said. “Music is my friend.
“My vocation has become my hobby and I am grateful for that. I don’t see myself ever giving up music.”
Gay, Guelfi and Whiteley are part of the trumpet section which also includes Jeffrey Tolar.
“I have always liked the brass sound and being in a brass choir amplifies that to another level,” Gay said.
Guelfi hopes the stories about people who returned to playing an instrument after time off will be inspiring for others who might find themselves in that situation.
“It’s never too late to pick up an instrument, either to learn one for the first time, or to return to an instrument that hasn’t been played in many years,” Guelfi said. “Many people take music for granted, but it’s really an integral part of our lives.
“Just Google ‘Star Wars without music,’ and you’ll find a bunch on YouTube. I find it to be one of the weirdest experiences ever. Music adds emotion, creates suspense and can change the entire way you interpret what you see.”
Richardson said the group will be performing at three church services in December, starting Dec. 15 at the Mahomet United Methodist Church. Other dates are set for Dec. 22 at the Wesley United Methodist Church, in Urbana, and for Dec. 29 at the St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, in Champaign.
He expects to return to the Mahomet Public Library, where the group played last spring, and may add other dates around Easter in mid-April.
