The Guilderland Town
Band
The
Guilderland Town Band (GTB) was organized in the spring of 1969 through the
Town of Guilderland Parks and Recreation Department and its members are both
amateur and professional musicians who range in age from teenagers to octogenarians,
and provides a venue for young and old to work together for a common goal. Don
Webster, former Instrumental Music Director at Guilderland High School,
founded the band and was its first conductor. The first season of performances
took place in the summer of 1969 with concerts at Stuyvesant
Plaza, the Altamont
Village Park,
and on the lawn in Tawasentha
Park near the pool. The
performance shell at Tawasentha
Park was built a few
years later and has become known as the Guilderland Performing Arts Center
(GPAC). The Town Band performed one of the inaugural concerts on its stage. The
band continues to perform at GPAC presenting three free concerts each summer.
In addition to concerts at GPAC, the GTB has also performed at Fourth of July
concerts at the Albany Country Club and Altamont Fairgrounds, the opening of
the new Music Haven Stage in Schenectady’s Central Park in 1999, the ribbon
cutting ceremony of the new Guilderland Town Hall, the Empire State Plaza, the
village park in Altamont and in various European locations during the Band’s
trip to Europe in 1989. Guilderland Town Band members have been fortunate to
have the opportunity to work with many talented guest conductors in past years
including Colonel Arnald Gabriel of the US Army Band. Don Webster retired as
band director in August 2001 and was succeeded by Kathleen Ehlinger. (The band
was also directed in 2004 and 2005 by Lori Hershenhart). |
