The Great American Brass Band Festival

2007 Festival Articles

May 31, 2007

'Best Teacher in Greece' comes to Danville

By BRENDA S. EDWARDS
brenda@amnews.com

Gerassimos Ioannidis, a Greek trumpeter, returns to Danville for the Great American Brass Band Festival. He is pictured near the Patra bridge in northern Greece.

A Greek trumpeter who is teaching in American colleges and universities this spring has been in Danville about a month working with students at Centre College and other nearby colleges.

Gerassimos Ioannidis began playing the trumpet at age 11 and was trumpeter for 25 years with the Greek National Opera in Athens until he recently retired.

He continues to teach music in Greece and also travels around the world teaching.

"I'm now free from the orchestra and will teach more," said Ioannidis.

Vince DiMartino, a music instructor at Centre who is hosting Ioannidis, praises his work as a trumpeter and teacher.

"Gerassimos is the best teacher in Greece," said DiMartino. "The best students are his students.

"He conducts, does solos and plays in orchestras," said DiMartino, who has been a friend of Ioannidis for several years. "Every kind of music a trumpet can do, he can play."

DiMartino considers his friend "the most famous music teacher in all of Greece."

Ioannidis is known throughout Greece as a conductor and for his trumpet performances, said DiMartino. When Ioannidis conducts a band, he has opera singers help with the concerts.

Town bands similar to The Advocate Brass Band are in most cities and towns in Greece, according to DiMartino. They operate a little differently and are sponsored by the government, while the local band is sponsored by The Advocate-Messenger.

Teaching in the area

The bands meet once or twice a week in Greece to practice or perform, said DiMartino. The Advocate band usually practices a few weeks before the spring and fall concerts and the Great American Brass Band Festival in June.

DiMartino and Ioannidis have been teaching in this area and are doing a session this week in Ohio. They will return next week to begin practice for the Brass Band Festival performances.

When Ioannidis was in Danville a few years ago, he played with The Advocate band during the Great American Brass Band Festival. He also acted as host and performed with the local band during its 2004 concert tour in Greece.

Ioannidis said the festivals in his native country are much smaller than the Brass Band Festival. They rotate annually from town to town performing mostly for local people.

Like Ioannidis, DiMartino conducts workshops and performs with bands in several countries.

When they conduct trumpet workshops, DiMartino said they usually work from 9 a.m. until midnight. "We had barely enough time to sleep," he said.

Each professor teaches a different topic such as how to practice music, how to make a living, and how to play in a band.

Worldwide reputation

As DiMartino travels the world, he always asks his audiences if they have heard of Danville's Great American Brass Band Festival. It's rare that someone has not heard or attended the festival, he said.

Brass bands from England, Germany, Canada, Japan, Greece and Spain have performed at the local festival, and they help publicize the festival, too.

DiMartino said it takes a lot of time learning to play well. Bands like the Spanish Brass practice every day and do recordings often. The band travels all over the world performing and will be at the Danville festival in June.

DiMartino does not class The Advocate band as professional although it has high school and college band directors as members. It is primarily made up of people who don't play music for a living but love to play, he said.

High school and college students as well as former students are in the band. They perform in spring and fall concerts in the Danville area and during the June festival.

Family bands

Town bands are like family bands. They have people of all ages, and the members become good friends, said DiMartino.

"It's a mixture of people who make it a wonderful group. We don't expect our band to sound like the New York Philharmonic, we want it to sound like The Advocate band."

Several Centre graduates who have performed with The Advocate band are in bands that will be at the Brass Band Festival. They include John Altman with the Army Brass Quintet and Mark Wood of the Army Blues Jazz Band.

Others of DiMartino's students who will return this year are John Lafferty of Winchester, who conducts the Syracuse Wind Ensemble; David Hedges of Henderson; and Gabe DiMartino, teaching assistant at Wichita State University in Kansas.

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