By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
When announcer Jerry Anderson was given the script he’d read at Sunday’s Bowling Green Area Community Band, he noticed something missing.
The script written by director Thom Headley was full details about the music that would be played, and recognition of the musicians in the band who would be soloists, including Jeff Guion playing the “Jingling Johnny” bell tower on John Philip Sousa’s “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.”
Yet one significant detail was left unmentioned: This would be Headley’s last concert as director before he retires to his happy place in the French horn section.
“It’s such an honor to do this,” Headley said after the performance as he walked down an empty corridor to the atrium packed with people waiting to greet him. He wanted “to get the spotlight off of me and on the people who play because they’re the ones who do all the work. And that’s where I want the spotlight to always be.”
The concert was fraught with emotion as he led the band through a characteristic program of marches, movie music, classics, patriotic melodies, and pieces composed specifically for band. That included pieces at the emotional extremes.
“Song of Solace” by Lt. Colonel Ryan Nowlin, conductor of the Marine Band, was a musical eulogy for Jordin Andrews, whose life that was full of music was cut short by cancer. His parents, Jeff and Linda Andrews, traveled from northeast Ohio for the performance. Nowlin, a two-time BGSU graduate, has a connection to the band. He was guest conductor at the band’s 10th anniversary celebration.
“Song of Solace” was followed by the zany musical adventure “Animation: (Episode1: Wabbit)” by Randall Stanbridge.
In light of this concert’s date May 4 — may the fourth be with you — the band interjected Star Wars music into the proceedings. Headley switched his baton for a toy light saber for those tunes.
Guests performers the TMS Quartet (Tain’t My Sister) — Chad Lufts, Nate Rettig, Brian Zattau, and Tom Pendleton — added another element providing sentimental favorites as well as Tom Lehrer’s satirical piece “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.” They sang while the stage was set and unset for the BiG Band BG. The quartet also joined the concert band for the rousing finale, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
The penultimate piece on the program seemed particularly fitting. Selections from “The Sound of Music”celebrates the joy of performing and teaching music.
Anderson recalled that when Headley was hired in 1980 the superintendent told him he wanted the band to be something more than it was then. Headley set to the task, and in his 29 years as band director he developed a superior band that traveled not only domestically, but to London, Paris, and Edinburgh.
In those years, Anderson said, Headley influenced hundreds and hundreds of students. They became better musicians, and learned to blend their talents with others for the common good. Many of those former Bobcat band members, some now in their sixties, will say that their success owes something “to what they learned from Thom Headley.”
Headley retired in 2009, but stayed active with the Community Band as an assistant director and in the horn section. In 2011, he took over directing from the founding conductor Nick Ezzone. Now he will pass the baton to Catherine Lewis, who has been assistant director as well as a member of the bassoon section.
Headley said that he’s ready to set aside all the responsibilities of leading the band — selecting the music, conducting rehearsals, writing the program notes, and more. “I’m just tired of it,” said Headley, who has dealt with health issues in the past several years.
He’s looking forward to concentrating on his horn. “When I’m playing, I’m in good shape.,” he said, but conducting takes away some of the time he needs to practice. Asked if he plans to continue playing as long as he can, his response was emphatic: “Yes! Yes!”
