European tour finds Advocate band singing in the rain

By BRENDA S. EDWARDS
Staff Writer

The Advocate Brass Band was a hit during a five-concert European tour last summer in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This was the first time the band had been on foreign soil. It had only performed twice outside Danville, in Washington, D.C. and Louisville. However, earlier this
year, the band was invited to New Orleans for a tourism show hosted by the Kentucky Department of Parks.

Thousands of people gathered to hear the American band at its first performances abroad. The largest crowds attended during heavy rainstorms. The first concert at Luxembourg was during a heavy rainfall but that did not bother the crowd that stood by under umbrellas and canopies. The rain also poured down when the band performed in Herforst, Germany.

The Gouda, Netherlands, concert was similar to the ones held in the Weisiger Park. A gazebo held the band and people of all ages rode their bicycles, sat under the shade trees and enjoyed the 19th- and 20th-century music of the band, under the direction of George Foreman.

Most of the concerts were held in town squares where people gathered at sidewalk cafes to eat and drink and hear the music. After the concert in Leimen, Germany, a church hosted a reception for the American guests.

Perhaps the tiny village of Herforst, Germany, made the band most welcome. The townspeople, including members of the Musikverein Herforst 1933 community band, acted as hosts for the band's three-night stay to play at a music festival. More than 3,000 people, the largest crowd ever, gathered under a large tent to hear the Danville band, which was accompanied by the Herforst band during the German-American Friendship Evening.

The Herforst band was among three foreign brass bands playing in the 2000 Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville last year. The exchange tour was arranged in 1999 after Foreman visited a friend in Herforst and decided to have the local band tour the European villages.

The band played in the Market Square in Brussels, Belgium, where the music bounced off the historic buildings. Brussels was the largest city where the band played.

Foreman called the European tour a "great success" and said he hopes the band can take another trip in the future.

The Advocate Brass Band was organized and sponsored by The Advocate-Messenger to play at a 1987 Danville political rally. After that, the bandsmen decided to continue playing at spring and fall concerts. Five of the original members remain in the band. Many local people and Centre students have come and gone, Foreman said.

The tour also included five professional musicians: Rich Illman, cornet/trumpet, an associate professor of trumpet at Michigan State University; Paul Castillo, clarinet, a member of the Long Beach (Calif.) Symphony Orchestra; Earle L. Louder, euphonium, who recently retired as professor at Morehead State University; Marty Erickson, tuba soloist, who serves as professor of tuba at Pennsylvania State University; and Gerald Zaffuts and his son Joseph of New York, who are in the trombone section.

In addition to its spring and fall concerts, the Advocate is a featured band at the Great American Brass Band Festival each June at Centre College.

Foreman said the band represents what is good about music. It brings the young and old together, which is what good music should do. 

The 35-member band ranges in age from 15 to 80. There are a couple of father and son musicians, a couple from Louisville and several former high school and college band teachers.