BROOKINGS Its one of those hometown events that lets residents know summer has arrived, the living is easy and Sundays mean music in the park: in Brookings it all comes together at 7:30 p.m. on June 15 at the rejuvenated WPA-built band shell in Pioneer Park with the Brookings Community Band.
The band is led by David Reynolds, director of the School of Performing Arts at South Dakota State University. This year marks his 19th as BCB director. He succeeded James McKinney, SDSU professor emeritus of music and director emeritus of the Pride of the Dakotas, who directed the community band for about 10 years.
Every concert has a theme: At this first one for summer 2025, concert-goers are invited to See the U.S.A. Its a musical journey across America, with a musical view of picturesque canyons and wide-open spaces.
The June 22 concert features the traditional Childrens Night with a look at a circus when The Big Top Comes to Brookings. It brings with it wonder, color and imagination as the band plays Entry of the Gladiators, the best-known and most recognized circus march ever. And bringing a taste of the circus to the kiddos will be a helping of cotton candy.
June 29 features An American Salute, the annual patriotic celebration that honors our military veterans with a medley of the made-for-flag-waving service songs of Americas armed forces. Its especially fitting this year for the United States Army that on June 14 celebrates its 250th birthday.
On July 6, in A Tribute to Leroy Anderson, the band pays homage to a composer who wrote music exclusively for the Boston Pops. Featured compositions include: Blue Tango, Syncopated Clock and Trumpeters Lullaby.
Come July 20 the band wraps up another summer season with an Ice Cream Sunday, serving up classic show tunes from stage and screen to be enjoyed with SDSU ice cream.
Additional band performances are set for the Brookings Fourth of July Parade. Well be waving at everybody and playing much music in the parade, on the back of a flatbed trailer, Reynolds noted, laughing. Add to that the band making music for the Brookings Summer Arts Festival in Pioneer Park the weekend of July 12-13.
Fun group to play with
By way of a sports analogy, the band has a strong bench: A roster of more than 100 musicians ensures that each concert has a total of 70 to 80 instruments.
We do have a good balanced band this year, explained Kathy Larsen, a veteran clarinetist for more than three decades and leader of the kids march at every concert.
We have kids that are coming out of middle school going into high school training with us. And then we go up to people in their 80s playing with us.
Thats kind of what makes it fun. You interact in groups with whatever instrument youre playing: You get to know them; the young people get to know the old people and the old people get to know the young people. Its a relaxed performance; we practice hard but its relaxed. Its a fun group to play with.
For the first two or three weeks we play every piece that were going to play throughout the summer, before the concerts start, Larsen explained. After we read through all that music, when its concert time we go to practice on Monday nights and we play those tunes that were going to play that following Sunday. Thats how we go, week by week.
The band plays for the two other traditional events in Brookings, noted above: in the Fourth of July Parade and the Brookings Summer Arts Festival the second weekend in July. The band doesnt per se practice for those occasions; rather, selections are made from music that has already been played. But how do the band members keep their skills sharp during what Larsen called the winter break?
She explained: Quite a few members of the community band play in the com-university band, an SDSU band that pairs college students and community students. That band is directed by Don Lin, a member of the SDSU Foundation. Of course, the SDSU band members play regularly and some members are like the pro baseball players of yester year and start practicing as the summer season nears.
So the community band has a core group of people who sort of hold it all together as student musicians come and go and other older musicians drop in and out of the band.
But were very lucky that we have that many people that want to play and they play well, Larsen noted in her closing comments. Our band is a good-sounding band.
The appreciation for the band is expressed financially by an annual subsidy from the city of Brookings. As to the venue, the bandshell has been refurbished and resembles what it looked like when it was built with funding from the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Contact John Kubal at [email protected]. The Brookings Community Band contributed to this report.
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