Dick Ellis & So. Royalton Band

To Play for Chandler Opening

The South Royalton Town Band, under the baton of Dick Ellis, will perform Saturday, Sept. 15 from 2-2:30 p.m. outside of Chandler Music Hall in Randolph for the opening of Albert’s Big Bash, a nine-hour extravaganza.

The band recently concluded another successful year with Ellis, who completed his 61^st year as director.

The band, which numbers 35 to 40 players of all ages, draws members from the local junior-senior high school, as well as those who travel from the Barre-Montpelier area and from communities in the upper valley.

"It’s the age difference that keeps the band alive," explained Phyllis Kadlub. "The younger musicians want to play and the older ones enjoy helping them keep their place in the music and explaining musical terms and symbols during rehearsals."

During the summer of 1979, the South Royalton Band had the distinction of being asked to play for a movie that was shot in and around South Royalton. The movie was an adaptation of Mark Twain’s "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg." Some of the lucky band members actually got to rub elbows with the film’s stars, Fred Gwynne and Robert Preston!

In addition to the band’s regularly scheduled eight concerts each summer on the park in South Royalton, it has played in the Vermont State House, and also in the Randolph 4th of July parade for the last 40 years. Other venues have included Tunbridge Fair, the Woodstock Historical Society, the Billings Farm, and numerous Old Home Day celebrations around the state.

The mission of the South Royalton band is threefold: to give musicians a chance to play traditional band music as well as classical transcriptions, pop and Broadway music; to entertain and educate the public and to foster the love of band music in younger players.

Kadlub notes that, "The band has guest members who actually plan their summer vacations so they can play with the band! One such player comes from Michigan, another from Washington, D.C."

The band outgrew its bandstand on the park about 15 years ago and has played concerts in front of it on the ground. Private donations provided funds to build a new, larger and lower bandstand a few years ago.

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