CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 23 Opposite | Bill Howard directs the fun- loving Bavarian Brass Band. Below | Roy Roach, Patricia Howard and Dr. Ken Manning play the alpenhorn in Savannah, Ga. Bottom | Roach plays at a recent International Folk Festival in Fayetteville. Photos courtesy of Al Peppers and the Fay- etteville Cumberland County Arts Council and Jennifer Howard music enjoyed at Bavarian beer gardens where good drink, food and camaraderie are celebrated with gusto. "It's very happy music," says Bill Howard, the band's conductor and a founding member. With 13 musicians on drums, baritones, alto horns, tubas, trumpets and flugelhorns, there's no missing this beat. The flugelhorn is the principal instrument that gives the band its mellow sound though ironically, the early flugelhorn was an instrument of war, used to call flanking armies into position. Clarinets and trumpets are called upon occasionally to add their particular sounds to some of the arrangements. Band members come from all walks of life. There's an oncologist, a retired Army dentist, a professional musician and orchestra leader, music teachers and a school guidance counselor. Age and experience vary, but the common denominator is a passion to play zesty, fun-loving music. Most are from the Fayetteville community although two commute from as far away as Clayton and Pinehurst. Many of the members play in other community bands or orchestras. Coordinating the band's array of performances is Howard, a soft-spoken man who during a recent rehearsal kept telling the band how well they played some of the "lip-busting" pieces. It was the first of only two scheduled rehearsals of the entire season, but, as massive alpenhorn, leaving all the work to the lips and a good set of lungs. Pat is part of a trio of alpenhorn players added during last year's season, along with Roy Roach and Dr. Ken Manning, an oncologist at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. Manning played trumpet in high school and at the College of William and Mary but laid down his horn after graduation. When his son carried on the musical tradition, playing saxophone at Manning's alma mater, Manning picked up his horn again. He also met Bill and Pat while playing with the Fayetteville Community Band. Howard points out, these are talented musicians who have played for years and two rehearsals to either reacquaint or introduce a new piece into the band's 300-piece repertoire are all that's needed. Howard is a Fayetteville native who learned to play an E-flat horn at an early age when, alongside his pianist mother, he performed with the Salvation Army Band. Later, as an eighth-grader, he played the baritone at Fayetteville High School until his senior year. After graduating, he joined the Navy and put his musical talents on hold for 23 years. Surprisingly, his love for German brass band music didn't come from his brief port-of-call to Hamburg; rather, his love for that genre originated during a visit to Busch Gardens in the early 1980s. It was reinforced a few years later when he visited Helen, Ga., a re-created alpine village which claims the longest Oktoberfest in the South. Now, the band is a family affair for the Howards. Granddaughter Maralee travels on occasion from South Carolina to play clarinet. Howard's wife, Pat, plays the flugelhorn and, more recently, the alpenhorn. Pat Howard grew up playing music in Charleston, S.C., where, thanks to her musician father's preferences for brass instruments, she learned to play the cornet and trumpet. It was an easy transition to the flugelhorn and the 12- foot, 3-inch alpenhorn. Unlike other brass instruments, there are no valves on the

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