About Us

The Gateway Concert Band Director’s Report
Annual Meeting
October 17, 2016
Jack Prindle, Music Director

It has been another busy and successful year for our group. Since our last Annual Meeting on October 12, 2015, we have rehearsed forty-two times, performed twelve times, and had one recording session. Our “formal concerts” have been arranged in four series, in which the same program has been performed twice, either on a Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, or on consecutive Mondays in Enumclaw and Sumner. The first series was presented on December 6th and December 7th, both in the community auditorium at Enumclaw High School. The second series was presented on March 20th and 21st (also at the EHS auditorium). The third series was presented on June 20th (also at the EHS, because of inclement weather) and June 27th (at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Sumner). The fourth series was presented on August 15th (at Rotary Centennial Park in Enumclaw) and 22nd (also at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Sumner). We participated in parades in Enumclaw on December 5th and July 4th. We performed at ceremonies at Tahoma National Cemetery on Veterans’ Day (November 11th) and at the Enumclaw Veterans’ Memorial on May 29th (in honor of Memorial Day). The recording session was held at the Enumclaw High School Auditorium on September 12th.

Our concerts have continued to include soloists from within the band. In December, flutists Barbara Cotton and Stephanie Magnusson performed a duo with a reduced ensemble from the band. In March, I played a solo on trumpet with the band. In June, David Luke played a solo on tenor saxophone with the band, and in August, Phil Bondurant played a solo on trombone with the band. Assistant conductors Stephanie Magnusson and Todd Frazier very ably conducted the band in several pieces over the past year, especially in the June concerts and for the “Memorial Sunday” ceremony while I was away on a long trip.

Our fund-raising effort of having band members and concert patrons “sponsor” the music we’re performing has continued to be very successful. According to the records I have compiled, all of the 40 pieces eligible for sponsorship were sponsored this year, for a total of $3,097.

We have continued to have our indoor concerts and our Summer Favorites professionally recorded and CDs have been available for purchase by members of the band and for the audience. We also continue to have compilations of our Holiday Favorites and Summer Favorites for sale at our concerts and from our website.

During the past year, we enjoyed “snack and visit” gatherings at our rehearsals on November 23rd (and used the occasion to celebrate Paul Jackson’s 80th birthday) and June 13th. We also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the beginning of our group with a “birthday party” on March 7th. We also celebrated Paula Evjen’s birthday on August 29th.

Since last October, we have added twelve new members and had one long-absent member return. Sadly, since last October, we have had two players leave us and have dropped five long-absent players from the roster. In terms of instrumentation, we added players of the following instruments: two flutes, one bassoon, four clarinets, two trumpets, two trombones, one euphonium, and one percussionist. The players we have lost played the following instruments: three clarinets, one alto saxophone, one French horn, and two trombones. Five players (two flutes, one bassoon, and two percussion) joined us for part of the year and left before this fall. Five players have not been attending (for various reasons) lately, but hopefully will return: one flute, one clarinet, one bass clarinet, and two percussionists.

In terms of instrument needs, in several ways, parts are being covered better than they ever have been. Ideally, we could use additional clarinet, trumpet and trombone players.

The band trailer continues to be quite useful for storing and transporting equipment, stands, and chairs for our rehearsals and performances. The Enumclaw Church of the Nazarene has been very generous in allowing us to park the trailer on their property. Our full-function Canon copy machine (“Janet”), donated to us several years ago by Enumclaw Stationary, proved to be beyond repair and has been replaced with a multi-function Epson inkjet printer/copier/scanner/fax (“Eddie”). Eddie was quite useful in scanning and printing additional parts needed for our December musicn and should serve well for many years to come. Our Brother laser printer (“Bob”) continues to work well for inexpensive printing of black-and-white computer-generated material (including these pages of the Annual Report), though he is developing a bit of a squeak when printing numerous copies.

This fall has seen a major change in the support we get from the Enumclaw School District. Because Black Diamond Elementary is being demolished and rebuilt, the entire school is moving to J. J. Smith Elementary in Enumclaw. In January, we moved all of the file cabinets full of music and all of our other equipment which had been stored at JJ to a heated and secure storage locker at Enumclaw Self-Storage. Though it costs us about $90 per month, there are some important advantages, such as easy and available access (there were some times when we were unable to get to our things at JJ), a drier environment, and security (other groups shared that storage room at JJ, and we had lost some small items).

The district’s new business manager decided in September that they will no longer allow me to have a key to the band/orchestra room at Enumclaw Middle School nor will they allow us to remove music stands and percussion equipment for use at our concerts and ceremonies “off-site”. Because of the major re-building project at Enumclaw High School (expected to take 3 school years), the bands, orchestra and choir classes from EHS have been “moved” to EMS, and there was some consideration in the late summer that we would not be able to rehearse at Enumclaw Middle School. But they re-considered and decided to let us remain (and use their stands and percussion instruments for our rehearsals). But we must find another place (or places) in which to rehearse on days school is not in session (because there is no custodian to open the room for us and make sure it is locked when we leave).

Besides the obvious Mondays in July and August, that includes seven days during the school year. We are actively searching for alternate rehearsal space for those days, and I think we will be able to meet in the Enumclaw VFW hall, pending building use committee approval.

In terms of the equipment we’ve been using from Enumclaw Middle School, I’ve been busy developing an “action plan” to keep our needs met. We have 24 music stands on a cart and a wonderful set of timpani, as well as a donated vibraphone and a small but serviceable bass drum. I’m hoping at least half of you can provide your own music stands for performances and rehearsals away from EMS. I’ve identified seven of the smaller percussion instruments and holders/stands, which I’m hoping the Governing Board will allow us to purchase with some (but not all) of the funds in our savings account. The biggest problems are chimes and xylophone, which are prohibitively expense and hard to purchase as used equipment. To my surprise, after weeks of watching, I “discovered” a used set of chimes and a used xylophone on Ebay. Knowing it would not be possible for the band to quickly gather the funds to purchase them, and concerned that they would not be available for long, I chose to purchase them myself (with my wife’s grudging acquiescence), in the hope that the band would purchase them from me sometime in the future. Jack and Kathy Datin have generously offered to let us use a set of used orchestra bells they purchased from Paul Jackson.

I’m hoping someone in the band will make a conductor’s podium for us, if we provide the materials.

Fortunately, Calvary Presbyterian Church is still generously allowing us to use their folding chairs for most of our outdoor performances. And we are very fortunate that Christ the King Lutheran Church in Sumner generously hosts our June and August concerts in Sumner on their lawn, and hosts an ice cream social after our June concert there and a barbeque dinner before our August concert at their church.

A couple of our “community service” projects have not succeeded as we hoped. Over the past year and a half, we have received 18 instrument donations and a cash donation to provide band the instruments to needy students in the Enumclaw and White River School Districts at no cost. To date, no students have requested an instrument. The Governing Board has determined that we will expand the availability of these instruments to students in the Auburn, Kent, Sumner and Puyallup districts, though most of the students already have instruments and they may not be needed until next fall. Our litter pick-up on a small section of the Auburn-Enumclaw Highway has not been done since March, 2015, and needs to be done soon.

I have selected themes for the concerts for the upcoming year as follows:
December 4 & 5, 2016: “Here We Come A’Caroling”
March 12 & 13, 2017: “Spring Forward”
June 19 & 26, 2017: “Name Those Tunes XIX”
August 14 & 21, 2017: “There’s No Place Like Home”

I want to acknowledge and thank those who have served on our Governing Board, particularly Jack Datin and Anna Clarke, who are due to complete their service on the Governing Board on November 1st. Thanks also goes to our continuing Governing Board members: Ross Willison, Alexis White and Rob Reynolds.

And my biggest debt of gratitude goes to our wonderful Assistant Conductors, Stephanie and Todd, who lead the band in the rehearsals and performances while I was absent from March 28th through our concert on June 27th, and to Wendy Parker, who served as our “Logistics Coordinator”, seeing that the trailer and equipment was moved and unloaded/loaded, that the room was set-up and taken-down for each rehearsal and performance, information was distributed and communicated, and myriad other things in my absence. And thank you to the several people who helped with hauling and unloading/loading the trailer and really everyone who helped with keeping things running so smoothly while I was gone.

In closing, I want to thank you very much for allowing me to continue to direct this wonderful group. I thoroughly enjoy my involvement with the band and the chance to meet with my band buddies every Monday evening and for our performances. Thanks for another fantastic year of very satisfying and enjoyable music-making and for all your hard work, assistance, and friendship.