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Music can uplift and comfort, challenge and inspire, evoke tears and laughter. Music comes alive each year through the Princeton Community Band.
And next summer, with the start of its new season, the Princeton Community Band will go where it’s never gone before and give concert-goers something they’ve never heard before.
Conductor Jim Jones of Tiskilwa has announced concert-goers will have a once-in-a-lifetime experience when the Princeton Community Band premiers a commissioned work being written specifically for the band by well-known composer and conductor Robert Sheldon of Bloomington.
The new work will be unique to the Princeton Community Band, and to the community, Jones said. The composer has requested and received samples of music played earlier by the band, as well as information on Princeton itself, its founders and history, in order to tailor-create the new work for Princeton.
In addition to the new composition, the 2013 season will be filled, as in previous seasons, with a wide range of music styles and genres, Jones said. As a jazz and blues musician, he may include more music along those lines than other conductors may choose. But as through the years, the band will continue to perform country, classical, movie themes, marches and overtures, Broadway tunes, ballads and rock and roll. Twice a season, the band also does a patriotic salute to the Armed Forces.
“When you come to one of our concerts, you never know what you are going to hear,” Jones said. “I tell people if you don’t like one number, stick around because it’s going to change.”
Jones has been at the helm of the Princeton Community Band since 2008, taking over for founder Jeremy Lehman, band instructor at Logan Junior High who moved from the area.
Since its formation in 2005, the Princeton Community Band has grown in number from an average of about 30 musicians in that first year to an average of 50 this year, Jones said. On any given night, the numbers may fluctuate with vacations and work schedules. Band members, who are all volunteer, come from throughout the Illinois Valley area and beyond, including Princeton, Spring Valley, Oglesby, Peru, Dixon and Normal. The community band also includes several high school band students from Bureau Valley High School and Princeton High School, including incoming freshmen, who are invited to join.
Not only has the size of the band itself grown, the audiences have grown in number as well, Jones said. In those early days, audiences would range in the 100 to 200 area. This past summer, audiences were more in the 500 to 600 range, with 900 people at the July 1 concert.
All concerts, six each year, are free to the public and are held at Soldiers and Sailors Park on South Main Street in Princeton.
Jones said he has two goals each year as the Princeton Community Band season begins. The first is to provide a place for talented musicians to rehearse and then perform in public. The second is for the community and audience to hear six concerts of the best quality performances that the band can get out with two rehearsals each week.
Without his dedicated board of directors, his job would be much harder, Jones said. Board members Debby Vetter, Paul Kautz, Aaron Nelson and Tim Harris handle the business part of the band, and he takes care of the musical attributes.
A retired band instructor for both Tiskilwa High School and Princeton High School, Jones said conducting the Princeton Community Band is an exhilarating experience for him. He loves the entire process from selecting the music for each season, to conducting, hearing the band perform, and seeing the response of the audience. But as a lifelong musician, the performances themselves are what he enjoys most, Jones said.
When asked what he wants his audience members to take with them when they leave a concert, Jones turns reflective for a moment.
“I know they may not remembers a specific piece of music, or they may, but I want them to leave our concerts feeling like they had a good time,” Jones said. “If they have had a good time, then we are fulfilling our mission.”
When asked what he takes away personally from each performance, Jones said the conductor in him looks at each song, what notes were played well, which ones could have been better. But he also looks at his band members, what they have accomplished, how they have worked together to create something they all loved to do.
“Each week, all the credit goes to the band. They practice and play and make it happen. It doesn’t matter how good the conductor is or what kind of music is played, if you don’t have a talented band, then nothing happens,” Jones said.
But the audiences are also integral to the whole experience, Jones said.
“When I walk up there to conduct the band and I see the 50 or 60 musicians ready to play, and then I turn around to announce the National Anthem and I see the 500 to 600 people in the audience, it all takes my breath away,” Jones said.
