Italy Tour

by David Wheeler

If, as Rick Steves is fond of saying, “Travel is intensified living”, then touring with the USAREUR Band & Chorus must certainly be intensified performing. From the moment the nose of the lead bus ventures beyond the gates of Tompkins Barracks until the last member of our caravan limps gratefully back within their confines, everything takes on a special character: the meals are exquisite (or terrible), the weather is perfect (or miserable), and the performances grant us a glimpse of the sublime or make us wonder if it isn’t too late to become plumbers. And of course, anything attempted with 60 people becomes a lightning rod for disaster unknown to, say, the woodwind quintet. Just getting them and their equipment into the three busses and two trucks which made up our entourage isn’t so bad; but then arranging for the right people to end up in the right place with the right equipment when three different groups were to perform concurrently (and oh, by the way, did I tell you that the load time was moved up an hour?) is enough to test the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job. Add to that the necessity of splitting the group up into separate hotels and tranquilizing the masses without the use of video anesthesia, and certainly the potential for disaster was there. And yet, as always, we pulled it off.

Vicenza was the site of our first performances; a small, quiet city in the shadow of Venice known primarily as the home of 16th century architect Andrea Palladio and several of his most inspiring buildings. (Thomas Jefferson was particularly impressed, copying several of Palladio’s plans for use in building the University of Virginia and Monticello.) We were awarded the rare honor of being allowed to perform in one of his masterpieces, the Teatro Olimpico: an intimate jewel of a theater in the Roman style seating only a few hundred, with a frescoed ceiling and statues gazing down from every perch. The heavy stonework served to keep the acoustics live, the temperature low and the humidity high; which worked great for everything except our pads… After we individually overcame the desire to smash our misbehaving instruments over one of the grinning cherubs, we collectively made some beautiful chamber music together – the strains of Strauss, Thuille and Bird sounded right at home. JoAnn Yates and Glen Carpenter, who being singers had no pads to worry about, were favored with much applause for their renditions of Berlioz, Mozart and Kern. Overall, it was a rewarding evening for all those involved.

The second concert in Vicenza was on a grand outdoor stage in the Piazza dei Signori, also designed by Palladio (the piazza, not the stage) (though the stage was quite nice too). Prior to our performance, we were treated to a reception in a room of the city hall reserved for special occasions. To be honest, I missed almost everything that was said; partly because it was primarily in Italian, but mostly because I was too busy trying to figure out what was going on in the huge paintings which hung around the room. Most featured women, in various states of undress or distress or both, and for the life of me I still haven’t figured out exactly who did what to whom Suffice it to say that they were colorful, detailed, and much to interesting for the mayor and the general to compete with. The concert, however, managed to hold the attention of over a thousand Italians and Americans for almost three hours; in spite of a persistent drizzle during the chorus show.  And for once, since the band didn’t have to come back on after the chorus segment, I was able to just be a part of the audience and enjoy watching them perform. “Good stuff!”, as the colonel would say.

Then it was off to Tirenia, where the band visited for a few days on last year’s tour. As is becoming our tradition, we ended up performing our first concert in civilian clothes due to the threatening weather. We arrived at the soccer field where we were to perform early in the day, and performed our setup and sound check under a blazing sun which left several of our members slightly singed for the remainder of the tour. Three hours later at showtime, however, the sky was black with clouds and the rolling thunder chased us and our equipment under cover. Yet the much-advertised rain failed to materialize; and since a handful of brave souls had waited around for our performance, the colonel decided that we would give them one. The duty combo improvised a set while the rest of the band scrounged the necessary music and equipment, and we then proceeded to play a large part of our scheduled show and encores. The final concert in Ponsaco had no such dramatics, but allowed us to perform some of the works we’d been saving for an indoor full-band venue: the Kurpinski Clarinet Concerto and Miscuglio Italiano, a collection of favorite Italian songs which JoAnn Yates sings. (OK; it doesn’t hurt that they have nice double reed parts, but they’d be nice anyway.) Personally, I wasn’t ready to go home yet and would liked to have performed another concert; but we had other commitments back in Germany which demanded our return. Still, any time in Italy is better than none.

The question frequently comes up as to why we do tours like this. After all, they cost a lot of money, we never have enough time to prepare as we would like, Tony Bortone’s hair is visibly thinner (he was the Operations guy in charge of making everything happen and translator/tour guide extraordinaire) (and he didn’t have any to spare before) (hair, that is), and the toll on all personnel and equipment is considerable. Certainly the food is heavenly, playing goggle-eyed tourist in Venice and Milan wonderful, and how many people can say that they have played catch in the shadow of the Alps? Of course I could make a pretty good case for the PR/international relations/flag waving angle, which is what we tell the Army when they raise their collective eyebrows at our budget. After all, they still haven’t invited a Marine band down there, and to say that there is still some tension between the Italians and the Americans would be putting it mildly There are also several American military installations in Italy, which is part of the area we support, and the clinics we give in the local schools help raise morale and encourage kids to continue their musical growth. But for me, as important as those things are, they all fall behind any opportunity to play music in front of an audience. Even though I will never be the caliber of musician I would like to be, or even of those I am fortunate enough to work with, I have yet to find anything which gives me the personal satisfaction of performing music in public. And to do that, I could deal with almost anything – even Italy!