History
The GSB Story Told Through
Founding Members
How the Gaston Symphonic Band Came to Be. I enjoyed my school band days very much, starting on Cornet in third grade, and switching to French horn in high school. I did not play in college and did not think about playing again for many years, until I attended a community band concert in Michigan. The desire to play music bit so hard that I bought a used horn, practiced a few weeks, joined the band, and enjoyed it very much.
When I moved to Gastonia in 1981, I played occasionally in church and looked for a community band, but there was none. Two musician friends, Leary Cloer and John Bagwell, felt the same desire. Our search for a musical director finally found Mr. Seth Kirby, band director at the Mt. Holly Junior High School, who was excited to lead the band and let us use the band room for rehearsals.
We made a list of all the former musicians we knew and sent out 50 invitation letters announcing the first rehearsal. Nineteen rusty, excited, players showed up, and the band was off and running! Four months later, in December of 1992, our first Christmas concert was presented, with over 40 happy players on the stage! This has grown over the following thirty-two years to over 60 players, who enjoy the camaraderie, “stress relief”, and the deep satisfaction of making music together.
Yes, there is room for you too – get your horn (or sticks) out of the closet and Come Join Us!
Dr. Bruce Trefz
Dr. Dick Akers
Trombone Gaston Symphonic Band had its roots in a circle of players surrounding trumpeter, Leary Cloer, of Parkwood Baptist Church. A long time Presbyterian myself and trombone player, I had played with Leary on a couple of occasions. In the fall of 1991, he invited me to join a group, very diverse, to form a community band. He’d found a band director, Seth Kirby, and a place to practice, Mt. Holly Jr. High. I accepted, and we started up the second Tuesday night in September. There were about twenty of us, and I was briefly the only trombone player. Bruce Trefz was there on horn with Jeanette Myers (both still in the band). Our first concert was around Christmas, and the audience (mostly family) outnumbered the band, but not by much. We kept going, though, and by May, 1993, there were 49 players and we performed one of our concerts at Hunter Huss HS Auditorium, (maybe half full) still under the direction of Seth Kirby. By then we had an oboe player, Steve Beeler, but still no bassoons – my favorite instrument. We’d moved to Grier Jr. High for rehearsals and changed the night to Thursday, which fit my surgery work schedule much better. And here I am, over 30 years later, still in the band.