Three former Advocate band members rejoin old unit at festival

By HERB BROCK
Staff Writer

There's brass. And there's the brass.

There was plenty of brass on musical display Thursday night in the Advocate Brass Band's annual pre-Great American Brass Band Festival practice in Newlin Hall at the Norton Centre for Arts at Centre College.

And among the many players joining the band on stage were three men who used to regularly perform in the 14-year-old outfit. The three alumni often have come back over the years to Danville to play with the Advocate band at the festival, but they now spend most of their musical time performing in military bands representing the branches of the armed services of which they now are full-time members.

The three servicemen, all trumpet players, thus have experience not only performing on brass but saluting it.

On hand for the Thursday night practice were:

* John Altman, who has performed since 1999 with the U.S. Army Field Band, based in Maryland. He played in the Advocate band from 1993-96. He is a 1996
graduate of Centre College, where he was a student of renowned trumpet player and teacher Vince DiMartino, and has a master's degree in trumpet performance
from Northern Illinois University.

* Doug Burian, who has played since 1997 in the "President's Own" U.S. Marine Band, based in Washington, D.C. He played in the Advocate band from 1992-95. He is a 1995 graduate of Centre, where he was a student of DiMartino's, and has a master's degree in trumpet performance from the University of New Mexico.

* Mark Wood, who has performed since 2000 with the "Pershing's Own" U.S. Army Field Band, based in Virginia, and played with another Army band from 1995-2000. He played with the Advocate band from 1992-93. He is a 1993 graduate of the University of Kentucky, where he was a student of DiMartino's, and has a master's degree in trumpet performance from Northern Illinois.

As members of major national military bands, all three play at numerous concerts and other official engagements throughout the year for the military and for the general public, from parades to funerals to many other events featuring national and international dignitaries.

But while they now are busy performing in prestigious bands on a national stage, all three men look forward to coming back to Danville for the festival -- which is growing into a national event in its own right -- every chance they get.

"When I'm on the road with the field band, I often think about my experience with the Advocate brass and how enjoyable it was," said Wood. "And the closer it gets to festival time, I can't wait to come back and play with the band.

"The experiences (of playing with the military band and Advocate bands) are very different," he said. "The military band is very formal and official. When you're playing in the Advocate band or any other community band, you're playing for the pure enjoyment of playing. If you miss a note, it's not a good thing but it's also not the end of the world, either."

Wood compared the two experiences to baseball, saying being with a military band is like being in the "major league" while being in a community band is like being in the "minors." But it was while he was in the "minors" when he not only got on-the-job training and experience and but also had the most fun.

"When I come back to Danville, it's like a ballplayer coming back to the innocence and joy of the minors. It's where you learned to play with other players and had a lot of fun doing it," he said.

Burian agrees.

"When I was at Centre, there were no brass ensembles or large brass bands, so the Advocate band provided me a wonderful opportunity to perform in what essentially was a large brass ensemble," he said. "It provided me and other Centre students who were into brass band music good training. It was the large ensemble we couldn't experience at Centre."

Burian explained how he and Wood and Altman eventually joined even larger brass ensembles -- the military bands of which they now are members.

"When you want to be a member of a U.S. military band, you first must gain acceptance to the band and then you apply for entry to the branch of service that the band represents," he said. "In my case, I heard there was an opening for a trumpet player in the Marine band and I auditioned for the opening, along with 70 other applicants. I was selected for the position and then began the process of being admitted to the Marines."

While he, Wood and Altman spend a lot more time practicing with trumpets than rifles, Burian stressed that he and the other two are all active duty military.

"We obviously have different roles than other units of the Army and Marines but we are just like them in that we are active duty. We are also soldiers," he said.

Music has been very much a family affair for Burian. He considers both the Marine band and the Advocate bands big families. But the Marine band situation
literally does involve a family connection. His father, Dennis Burian, of Bowie, Md., is assistant director of the Marine band of which Doug is a member.

And one of the younger Burian's fondest memories is when his two musical families, the civilian and military ones, crossed paths at the 1994 brass band festival in Danville.

"I was with the Advocate band at the time and my dad came to the festival. (Director) George Foreman let my dad serve as guest conductor and I performed a solo while he conducted," said Doug Burian. "That wasn't just a musical moment. It was truly a family moment, and I'll never forget it."

Copyright  The Advocate-Messenger
This article first appeared in the June 17, 2001, edition of The Advocate-Messenger

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