Shell of its former self: Cedar Rapids Municipal Band plays on with aging band shell

Music has been marching through Cedar Rapids summer breezes since the 1890s, and now the city's Municipal Band is hoping the public will jump on the bandwagon to let the beats go on.

A fund drive is underway to raise about half the cost of a new mobile band shell to enhance sights and sounds for Cedar Rapids Municipal Band concerts and other outdoor events around the city, including KCCK's popular Jazz Under the Stars series in Noelridge Park.

The current city-owned shell, in use since 1959, is nearly as old as the band and is showing its age, says Steve Shanley, who has been directing the professional ensemble since 2011.

The Municipal Band and the Cedar Rapids Parks Department are each budgeting $30,000 toward the $150,000 purchase price of a new unit dubbed a Showmobile. That's nearly one-third of the band's $98,000 operating budget and the most it can commit, so the entities are turning to businesses, service organizations and individuals to raise the remaining $90,000.

'Having a portable stage like that allows us to give a concert anywhere in any of the parks, anywhere in the city or on any city street,' Shanley says. 'It allows us a great flexibility.'

The band commission has investigated performing without a shell, but that just isn't feasible, Shanley says. Park pavilions are too small to accommodate the 59-member band, and moving outdoors to a flat surface isn't any better.

Longtime member and equipment manager Larry Klima, 80, of rural Mount Vernon, played clarinet with the original city band in 1950 — one year before the current group was formed. He remembers well the days of playing without a shell.

Getting one 'made quite a difference,' he says, improving upon the rectangular surface and string of lights the city had been setting up for Sunday concerts in Ellis and Bever parks.

'The band shell reinforced the sound — we didn't have to rely on the sound system,' which Klima says was 'pretty primitive' in the 1950s. Improved sound is the shell's biggest benefit, Shanley adds.

'The acoustic design of a band shell allows the majority of the sound created by the musicians or speakers onstage to go forward toward the audience, which requires less amplification, and in some cases, no amplification, so the more natural sound we can get, the better,' the director says.

'A close second is (that) it's much nicer to look at. It has built-in levels of staging, so usually, wherever you are sitting, you're able to see all of the musicians onstage. This is true for the Municipal Band and Jazz Under the Stars — it just makes it much easier to see, whereas if they were in the grass, flat, you wouldn't be able to see them at all.

'The band shell has lighting built in, which makes it easier to perform at dusk and when the sun goes down, and it also is needed to provide the electrical required for any instruments that need amplification. That would be a bigger deal for Jazz Under the Stars,' he says.

A shell also provides shelter from the hot summer sun and occasional raindrops.

The new model, made by industry-leading Wenger Corp. in Owatonna, Minn., features upgrades in lighting, acoustics and aesthetics, and most importantly, is fully automated so it can be operated by one person, at the push of a button. The current shell needs two people to transport and set it up, Shanley says, so the new unit will cut down on parks department costs.

The Municipal Band also needs the shell to fulfill its mission of bringing music into as many neighborhoods as possible.

'If we don't get this, concerts in the parks will stop,' he says.

The band is staging two concerts in the new McGrath Amphitheatre downtown, but that busy venue isn't practical for the ensemble's 19 concerts stretching from Wednesday through Aug. 2.

MILESTONE SEASON

Community bands have been a way of life in Iowa for more than a century, and in 1921, the Municipal Band Law authorized cities to levy a small tax to help finance these organizations.

Other bands have come and gone in Cedar Rapids, but the current group is celebrating its 65th season, with high-profile guests, including Coe College President David McInally who will play a guitar concerto by Grammy-winning Cedar Rapids native Michael Daugherty on July 15, 18 and 19; violinist and KCRG-TV9 morning anchor Ashley Hinson the week of July 4; and French flutist Paul-Lucien Kulka, who met local musician Bill Carson in France, and will be traveling from Europe to play with the band July 29 and Aug. 2. Shanley also is hoping to find a time to feature founding conductor Roland Moehlmann's grandson, Mike Moehlmann of Chicago.

LEGACY

The outdoor concerts remain a fixture on the Cedar Rapids summer scene, drawing an average of 500 people across generations to listen, dance and twirl to a wide range of marches, contemporary works, jazz, big band, show tunes and classical standards.

For Klima, band is 'just a way of life.' His three children grew up with the concerts and his son, Kim Klima, has followed in his footsteps, playing clarinet with the ensemble for more than 30 years.

The elder Klima has played under every conductor, and says it's 'kinda fun to see what the different directors do with the band.' He says the more outgoing Shanley has brought modern music to the group, adding that 'if the music doesn't exist, he'll write it for the band.'

Shanley grew up going to the Municipal Band concerts and believes strongly in what such an ensemble adds to the fabric of life.

'It provides a lifestyle and it helps create a sense of community and a sense of family,' he says. 'There's really nothing like going to these concerts in the park when you see really young, all the way through people in their 90s, coming together in one of our pretty city parks and hearing very, very high-quality music — music that to be played that well by musicians who are that good — in any other circumstances you would have to pay for a ticket.'

It's also a low-stress way for parents to introduce their children to good music in a setting where it doesn't matter if they spill something or get restless and have to leave before it's over.

'The other thing that's an important component of this, is the Municipal Band musicians are from right here in Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa. And so there's something pretty neat about going to these concerts and seeing your neighbors performing. That also helps develop this sense of pride,' he says.

'The return on investment for what the taxpayers pay for this — I don't know if we could come up with any other thing that we pay our taxes on in this city where we pay this little and get this much in return.'

YOU CAN HELP

To donate toward the new Showmobile band shell:

• Online: Debit or credit card via GetOnTheBandWagon.org

• By mail: Send checks to: GetOnTheBandWagon Fund, Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, 324 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401

Schedule via the Municipal Band website:

Date

Site

Wednesday, June 3

Noelridge Park (near the lagoon)

Sunday, June 7

Ellis Park

Wednesday, June 10

Sokol Park

Sunday, June 14

Bever Park

Wednesday, June 17

Noelridge Park (near the lagoon)

Sunday, June 21

Ellis Park

Wednesday, June 24

Taft Middle School

Sunday June 28

Bever Park

Wednesday July 1

Exciting new venue: the McGrath Amphitheater (downtown)

Sunday, July 5

Ellis Park

Wednesday, July 8

Jefferson High School

Sunday, July 12

Bever Park

Wednesday, July 15

Noelridge Park (near the lagoon)

Saturday, July 18, 10 AM

Farmers Market, Downtown CR.This concert is at 10 AM!

Sunday, July 19

Ellis Park

Wednesday, July 22

Bowman Woods School/Chatham Park

Sunday, July 26

Exciting new venue: the McGrath Amphitheater (downtown)

Wednesday, July 29

Sokol Park

Sunday, August 2

Bever Park