The Great American Brass Band Festival

2007 Festival Articles

June 10, 2007

Advocate Brass home to musical families

By ROSS JOHNSON
jrj2110@columbia.edu

For many members of the Advocate Brass Band, playing music is a family affair.

For some, like Ron and Pat Facktor of Louisville, the 19 years spent playing in the band has been merely a fraction of the time they've spent together as musicians.

Yet something brings them back year after year to this unique musical experience.

"We met playing trumpet," said Pat, who now plays bass clarinet in the band.

The Facktors have been playing together for almost 60 years. The changes and challenges brought by a growing band keep the experience fresh for the pair.

And the band is certainly growing. This year, membership has almost doubled from the band's typical 35 members. In addition to the Facktors, there are six other families in the band.

"Before, we were a real brass band (with typical brass instruments)," Pat said. "But now we have saxophones, oboes, flutes..."

"And a timpani," Ron added.

The addition of several new instruments and a larger woodwind section gives the band "an expansive sound" and the opportunity to play different genres of music, said co-director Earle Louder. In addition to music from John Philip Sousa, the staple of brass band repertoires, the Advocate Brass Band can now play Ragtime, music from Gershwin, and even selections from Rogers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music."

Came to listen

The added selections are quite fresh for many of the band members, who practiced together twice before their performances at the Great American Brass Band Festival

Almost as fresh is the moment the Facktors joined the band in 1987.

"The first time we were with the band, we came to listen," said Pat. But after the first performance, Pat Facktor took the initiative and talked to former director George Foreman. "I never do that," Pat said. "But George told me to write him a letter at the end of the season." While the letter is lost, the results aren't, and Pat and Ron are still enthusiastic as ever about their avocation.

Dudley Spoonamore, band manager and charter member, is part of another family duo -- soon to be a trio -- in the band. He and his son Lee both play the trombone, and Spoonamore said his daughter Kellie plans to join the band next year.

"Music is a family event in our household," said Spoonamore.

Spoonamore praised the "unique bonds" that form through the experience of sharing music.

"The things we've played, the friends we've made. It's an experience I don't take for granted."

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