Three Rivers Community Band Festival relocates to Murrysville

Members of the East Winds Symphonic Band should be preparing for the 20th annual Three Rivers Community Band Festival. But, the covid-19 pandemic forced the festival to skip the past three years.

So while it has been around for two decades, it technically will be the 17th year for the festival when it takes place March 25.

This will be the first year the festival will come to Westmoreland County. It will take place at the Franklin Regional Senior High School auditorium in Murrysville.

“Community Band South has been one of the planners and helpers forever, and we held the festival down there,” said Roger Schneider, one of the festival organizers and founders of the East Winds Symphonic Band. “Their co-director, Jim Bennett, who was head of the Upper St. Clair music department, mentioned to us at the time that the school had just finished a lavish remodeling of their 900-seat auditorium, so we started hosting the festival down there.”

This year, East Winds was able to secure a small grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to help fund the festival, along with some money built up during the past three festival-less years.

In addition to performances by East Winds and Community Band South, there is a “festival band,” comprising more than 100 members from community bands across the region. The festival also features a guest band, and this year it will be the Jeannette Community Band.

Jeannette Community Band secretary Sherrie Wood has played oboe with the group since 1988. This year, the band is marking its 35th anniversary.

“Members of our group have been part of the festival band, but this is the first time we’re the guest band as well,” Wood said. “It’s really fun, because you get to play some challenging music. We used to call it ‘district band for adults.’ ”

The Jeannette Community Band’s half-hour performance will include highlights from the musical “Jersey Boys” as well as a military tribute piece titled “American Spectacular.”

Schneider said the festival band, under the director of River City Brass Band conductor James Gourlay, will perform three numbers, including Vaughan Williams’ “Toccata Marziale.”

“The festival band songs are always pretty challenging, especially because you’re practicing it at home, and then we only get about three hours to rehearse with the conductor,” he said.

Nanette Mancuso of Monroeville has been with the East Winds Symphonic Band for more than a quarter-century.

“I love sharing our music with the other community bands that have the same kind of expectations as us,” said Mancuso, who up until recently also provided the hospitality reception for the festival, organizing breakfast and lunch.

“That had to stop because of all the covid restrictions,” Mancuso said. “But really, I just love playing the music. It’s a challenge for me, and it’s fun.”

Listen to the 2016 festival band perform Robert Cameron’s arrangement of Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria”: