Passing the Baton
Concert Band

conductor goes out on a high note
(August 14, 2010)

By Jennifer Solis Correspondent, Daily News of Newburyport

Conductor Karen Mundo directs her final chord with the Merrimack Valley Concert Band at a gazebo concert later this month, when she will formally pass her baton to Pentucket band director Anthony Beatrice.

As is tradition, Mundo's 40 musicians will close out the annual Community Bandstand Summer Concert series with a performance on Thursday, Aug. 26, at 6:30 p.m. In case of inclement weather, the concert moves inside the 1910 Building Annex.

"It's been an interesting ride, but I wouldn't have done it if I didn't love it," Mundo said.

Originally founded in 1922 as the West Newbury Veteran Fireman's Association Band, the ensemble expanded in 1995 to a regional troupe representing 25 cities and towns and eventually incorporated as the MVCB in 2004. Its mission is to foster the community concert band tradition as an integral part of America's musical heritage.

Mundo said when she joined the band as a baritone player in 1990, it was because VFA charter member Danny Cashman "appealed to my sense of civic duty." Four years later, she was wielding the baton.
"Dave Cook, who was a wonderful clarinet player, was leading the band and playing clarinet at the same time. Every time he would stop conducting and start playing, the band would fall apart."

When she told Cook, "I can help you with that," she wound up becoming the "de-facto conductor," she said.

"We used to be a marching band -well, more of a shuffling band - but we were out there," Mundo said. "We've had wonderful moments."

She recalled a warm, moonlit night in Salem marching for the Halloween parade; marching - and trying to stay warm - in Santa parades in Merrimac and Haverhill; and a long, hot - and exhausting - parade for a saint's festival in the North End. And participating in the annual West Newbury Memorial Day ceremonies was always a highlight and a privilege, she said.

"We marched one Sunday for the closing parade of Yankee Homecoming. There was a heavy downpour and lightning. Most of the big units went home, but we said. 'Heck, we came here to march,' and march we did right through the entire parade route."

The band got soaked, their red VFA suspenders bleeding right through onto their white shirts. "But we felt great at the end," Mundo said with a big smile.

Still, there were tough times too. "When we stopped being a marching band, a lot of our revenue stopped. There was one year that band members bought one arrangement each so that we would have some new music to play. The members pitched in, and we kept going," Mundo said.

Perhaps the most memorable concert she conducted was two months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

"We all felt those well-known patriotic tunes deeply that night," Mundo said.

Beatrice agreed. "Karen selected the most patriotic music to perform for the standing-room-only crowd filling up the Annex. It was the most important concert I have performed in."

A graduate of the Pentucket High School class of 2002, Beatrice had joined the band as a percussionist in seventh grade.

"I remember going to my first rehearsal and doing a drum roll for the national anthem," Beatrice said and recalled earning a smile from the director who seemed pleased with his efforts. Performing as a teen with such high-caliber musicians helped him hone his craft and influenced his decision to pursue a career in music education, he said.

Now in his third year as director of the Pentucket district's secondary-school bands, Beatrice has doubled the size of the high school band, taken the marching band to Washington, D.C., to perform in the 2010 National Memorial Day Parade, started a private music lesson program for the communities and presented student music technology electronic compositions in Brisbane, Australia. This summer, he instituted a band camp for his musicians in August and is working to develop a half-time performance for football games this fall.

A music education major from UMass Lowell, Beatrice serves as an at-large member on the Executive Board of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association, on the Fine Arts Advisory Council at UMass and as Hockey Pep Band director for Merrimack College.

"I look forward to rejoining the band in the role of music director and continuing the consistent and dedicated work that Karen Mundo has set in place," he said.

Mundo returns the compliment. "Tony will be great. He's young, knowledgeable and enthusiastic."

For Mundo, the MVCB has always been about the people in it and the music they made together.

"Kathy Peavey's wonderful voice and playing - watching her son, Jacob, grow from a little boy with drumsticks to a full-fledged drummer. We had some very sweet older men who stayed with us through thick and thin: Don Snow, Don Page and Heustis Purdy, who died in his 90s and asked to be buried in his VFA uniform. The three of them built the podium I use. It's held up for years under adverse conditions, and I will it to Tony."

Mundo said she couldn't possibly mention every person who has affected her during her tenure. "So, I'll stop, but not forget them," she said.

And, then, of course, there's the music.

"The wonderful thrill of having us all in sync and on the same wavelength when we're all feeling the music and doing as fabulous a job as anyone else in the world. You can't beat it, and I'll miss it."