About the Band

About | Director | Personnel

The Callanwolde Concert Band is an independent community concert band of adult musicians who decided not to give up music after graduating from school. Formed in 1972 as a summer program of the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, the band has operated as an independent non-profit corporation since 1984. The alliance with the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center continues in the form of formal concerts at the center and mutual support for a strong performing arts presence in the community. The band is known throughout Georgia for its high level of musicianship and audience appeal. This is music at and from the grass roots, made by your neighbors. Look closely - you may see your doctor, dentist, attorney and your air conditioning mechanic, all united to preserve and continue a great American tradition, the community band.

The band of today differs greatly from the band of 1972, but the spirit and appreciation for good music played well has continued and flourished as the band has matured into one of the finest ensembles of its type in the southeast.

Founded under the baton of Charles Bradley, famed director of the outstanding East Atlanta Elementary Band, the band continued with George Webster as director and temporarily paused operations in the summer of 1973.

In the fall of 1973, the remaining members decided that the band would continue and asked for a show of hands from anyone who had ever been a band director. One hand hesitantly went up and by unanimous vote of everyone else, he was told, "Clyde, you are our new conductor" and given absolutely no choice in the matter whatsoever.

Clyde Bales had not "waved the stick" in about twenty years, and was making his living as a communications engineer. His music degree from LSU had rusted quietly except for playing percussion with the band for fun. He was, however, brave and willing to preside over our growth until 1985 when a job change transferred him away from Atlanta.

This time we prepared for a formal conductor search, but fortunately did not have to look beyond our trumpet section. Since that time the podium has been occupied by Mr. Raymond Handfield.


O. Clyde Bales


Our Conductor, Raymond Handfield
Our Conductor and Music Director Mr Raymond Handfield, a life member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia honorary music fraternity, is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (trumpet) where he was a student of Sidney Mear. His masters degree is from Boston University where he continued his trumpet study with Armando Ghitalla. He taught instrumental music and directed school bands in Massachusetts, New York and Georgia, retiring after a thirty year career.

Mr Handfield has performed in concert with the Oslo, Norway Opera Orchestra. He served as principal trumpet with the Orchard Park Symphony Orchestra, New York where he also directed the youth orchestra and served on the board of directors. Mr. Handfield also served as prinicipal trumpet with the "Opera Sacre" of Buffalo, New York. In Georgia he served as assistant principal trumpet for the Callanwolde Concert band before taking the podium in 1985.

Mr Handfield's other activities include an avid interest in duplicate bridge and a lifelong argument with the nearest available golf course.

Col. William Baldwin first became interested in music at the age of nine when he heard Sousa and his band in concert, shortly before Sousa’s death. He entered the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 1937, majoring in clarinet and conducting. He was a conducting student of the famous French maestro Pierre Monteux, a conductor for numerous ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco and Boston Symphony Orchestras. While at Juilliard Col. Baldwin was also a clarinetist in the successor to Sousa’s Band, the world famous Goldman Band, with its daily summertime concerts in Central Park and Brooklyn.

Col. Baldwin was appointed Music Director of the Manhattan Light Opera Company in New York in 1940. He was drafted in to the United States Army in 1941 and for the next quarter century conducted Army bands all over the world, among them the First Division Band, the 82nd Airborne Division Band, and the United Nations Band in Seoul, South Korea. From 1959 to 1964 he was a conductor of the main United States Army Band in Washington, DC. In 1956 at the invitation of President Eisenhower, he conducted a special federal concert of that band at Constitution Hall, a 200-year summary of American band music.

After retiring from the Army, Col. Baldwin was for many years Chair of the Music Department at Atlanta’s Westminster Schools. Past 90 years of age, he leads an active life, following a life-long hobby of collecting and working with antique clocks. He still conducts from time to time, most recently a full concert last summer with the United States Army Band in Washington DC. The Callanwolde Concert Band is honored to have Col. Baldwin as a guest conductor.


Guest Conductor
Col. William Baldwin,
US Army (Retired)

Personnel

Piccolo
Lee Marshall

Flute
Lisa Brown, Acting Principal
Laura Curtis
Polly Hendricks
Lee Marshall
Cathe McKinnon
Erica Silverman
Lisa Vinokur-Tedoff

Oboe
Jean Kavanaugh, Principal
Carlos Cantu

Clarinet
Mark A. Ozanick, Principal
Jim Downs
Mark Forbes
Linda Fountain
Sam Graiser
Sheldon Graiser
Richard Limbird
Jim Marchand
Graham Mobley
Tracy Morkin
Dawn Padula
Ron Penn
Glenn Schuffenhauer
Candice Tompkins

Bass Clarinet
John Anderson

Bassoon
Vicki Smith, Principal*

Alto Saxophone
Scott Lampert, Principal
Beth Fordyce
Daniel Newman

Tenor Saxophone
Arnie Frantz
David Smiley

Baritone Saxophone
John Patton

Trumpet
Gayle Eaker, Principal
A.J. Bancroft
Don Britt
Kay Fiarchild
Scott Files†
Eileen Matthews
Thomas Moebes
Joe Peek
Bill Pulis
Lindsey Solander
Laura Zajac-Cox


French Horn
Bruce Evatt, Principal
Holly MacKintosh
Elizabeth White

Euphonium
Steve Rousseau, Principal
Tom Anderson

Trombone
Harold Smith, Principal**
Tim Heston
Fred Land
Jim Renfroe

Bass Trombone
John Pooler
Bernard Tuvlin

Tuba
Mark Zickefoose, Principal
Bob Johnson

Percussion
David McLaughlin, Principal
Warren Abrahams
Robert Meehan
Jack Shenk
Victoria Voll

Tympani
Robert Meehan, Principal†
Warren Abrahams

† Assistant Conductor
* Edward J. White Chair
** Henry Mason Chair

Original Contents Copyright 2009 by Community Concert Band, Inc., Atlanta, GA, USA