A DREAM TURNS TO BRASS, HAPPILY

BSO TROMBONIST BRINGS NEW SHINE IN CONDUCTING NEW ENGLAND BAND

Author: By Diana Brown, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, November 15, 1998

Page: 17

Section: Northwest Weekly

WILMINGTON -- With his arms sweeping gracefully, Douglas Yeo, a renowned bass trombonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted a warm-up exercise for the musicians seated on folding wooden chairs in the basement of a Wilmington church.

The New England Brass Band, a passionate and eclectic group of 30 musicians who travel from as far away as Maine and New Hampshire each week to blow their horns in the British tradition of brass bands, were preparing for a weekend concert in Gorham, Maine.

The shimmering silver and brass instruments birthed a full, rich, boisterous sound that filled the room's every corner with its commanding melody.

About 10 years ago, a group of musicians, most of whom had learned to play in Salvation Army bands, formed the New England Fellowship Ensemble. The group later changed its name to the New England Brass Band. This season, under the new directorship of Yeo, the band of volunteers will be making music in some pretty prestigious places.

In January, the band will record its first Christmas album, with a second recording planned for July. In April, it will take the stage at Symphony Hall.

``It's a fantasy come true,'' said Peter Wiberg, 55, a human resources manager who travels weekly from Westbrook, Maine, to play the E flat alto horn. Yeo, he said, has ``got us playing better than we've ever played before. He plays with the best band in the world, so he has helped us really come up to the best of our abilities.''

Drew Currie, a 53-year-old father of four from Georgetown who plays the flugel horn, finds the prospect of playing at Symphony Hall thrilling.

``I don't care if there's no audience. I'm a kid when it comes to this kind of stuff,'' said Currie, a project manager in an architectural firm.

Every Monday night, this fraternity of brass musicians huddles in a semicircle in the basement of the Congregational Church of Wilmington. From all walks of life, carpenters, lawyers, convenience store owners, homemakers, they play for the love of the big brass band sound.

The band's first-chair cornet player, John Appleby, 52, of Hampstead, N.H., is a highway construction engineer for the Boston Public Works Department. Don Kittle, 47, of Belmont, sells cemetery monuments before he comes to rehearsals to belt out the bass trombone. John Bassett, 59, is a carpenter in Brookline who plays the B flat cornet.

``This is something I want to do,'' said Wiberg, who has five relatives also in the band. ``There are so many things that I have to do, but I do this because I enjoy it.''

His nephew, Sven Wiberg, 44, of Dover, N.H., is a lawyer who plays the tuba, cornet, and euphonium, and is also associate conductor.

Optician Leanna Conant, 38, of Quincy, has been coming to play the British E flat alto horn in the band for the last decade with her husband, Bill, 49, a Bell Atlantic employee who plays the E flat tuba.

``It's almost like a secret society because there's no other band like it in the area,'' Bill Conant said.

In England, nearly every town has a band, as chronicled recently in a film, ``Brassed Off.'' Brass bands became popular during the Industrial Revolution as a diversion for the working class, and band competitions have loyal followings. In America, brass bands are more of a novelty, and their sound is distinctive.

``From an audience perspective, it's spine tingling,'' Bill Conant said.

Appleby, who toured England with another band, the Cambridge Citadel Silver Band, fondly recalled one of the first times the New England Brass took the stage, at the Castle Hill concert series in Ipswich.

``People absolutely went crazy,'' he said. ``They stood up and gave us a standing ovation. I thought, `Wow, we finally found an audience.' ''

Peter Wiberg finds the response gratifying. ``What I like is the astounding look on people's faces when they hear a brass band play,'' he said.

The band needs to find more forums for its original sound, according to Yeo, who hopes to broaden the appeal by playing in schools, senior citizen centers, more churches, and anywhere else that would provide a wider audience. The band charges $1,000 to perform, with its hosts free to charge admission.

Yeo also would like to bring in younger members, such as the four high school students who now play with the band. All members must pass an audition first.

Yeo, 43, of Lexington, came to the band after searching New England for rehearsal partners to help him prepare for a solo recording with an esteemed, 162-year-old British brass group, the Black Dyke Mills Band, in 1996.

The New England Brass Band obliged, then called Yeo back after William Rollins, its longtime, Salvation Army-trained director, decided to retire. The members asked Yeo to become music director this season.

At first, Yeo declined, citing a lack of time, but his wife, Patricia, encouraged him to take the job if the band would take a package deal: the couple and their youngest daughter, Robin, 16. The band agreed, and now Robin plays trumpet and cornet, and Patricia plays the baritone.

Appleby, for one, was leery about how Yeo, as a symphonic player, would adapt to the brass band setting, but he reaported being pleasantly surprised.

``We were in kind of a rut. We didn't seem to be improving much,'' the 10-year band member said. ``Doug zeroes in on what needs improvement. I noticed it the first time he stepped in front of the band.''

Yeo, a music teacher who also is involved in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and teaches at Boston University and the New England Conservatory, enjoys coaching band members, many of whom practice daily.

``There's no job like playing in the Boston Symphony,'' he said, ``but the kind of music amateurs make is infused with a love they have for music.'' Yeo has been a soloist with the Boston and Baltimore orchestras and the Boston Pops.

``They're not doing it for money,'' he said. ``The results may not be as polished, but the spirit comes through, and that's what our world should value more.''

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