60th anniversary Skagit Community Band concert

La Conner is no stranger to either history or good music.

Both will be evident in town on Friday.

That’s when the Skagit Community Band, directed by La Conner resident Vince Fejeran, celebrates its 60th anniversary with a free concert and silent auction at Maple Hall.

The concert, in keeping with the spirit of the occasion, will feature favorite selections from through the years. After all, the band has played at special events across decades throughout the Skagit Valley area.

But La Conner, where Fejeran was a popular music teacher and band director before taking a similar post in Anacortes and then assuming his present role as a Skagit Valley College professor, is a primary venue for the band.

The 40-60 player band plays at least three performances annually in town. The May 25 anniversary bash is 7:30 p.m., a half-hour after auction bidding begins and the opening of a no-host beverage bar.

Fejeran told the Weekly News Sunday that band members have much to celebrate this anniversary year.

“The people who make up the band come from diverse backgrounds,” Fejeran said, “but the thing they have in common is a love of music. That really became evident during COVID when we couldn’t meet. We were able to get together in small groups and hold small rehearsals and did some remote recordings. We came out of it stronger than ever and it showed how big a thing the band is for us. The pandemic highlighted the importance of the band and how much we missed it.”

The band’s fans felt likewise.

From its start, dating to the early 1960s, the band has been known for being community oriented. In fact, it’s often said that community isn’t just in the band’s name but is the way it presents music.

The band was formed to include community players from the Skagit Valley College night school program. In those early years the group was known as the Skagit Valley Community Band. It and a spinoff big band, the Skagitones, played for weddings, picnics, reunions and other events.

Residents of a certain age will recall the band playing at the opening of One Moore Outhouse on First Street more than 40 years ago. More recently, the band performed when the town’s waterfront boardwalk opened.

Fejeran has been with the band for three decades. He is one of six conductors to have held its baton, as did Jon Milas, who resided in La Conner in the 1970s.

“I just think the best part of it,” Fejeran said, “is I’ve been directing the band for 30 years and every year I have to plan concerts, but it seems like I’m just starting out.”

In 1979, a musical arts board under the umbrella of the Skagit Valley College Foundation was established that works in an advisory capacity for the band and now includes the Skagit Valley Symphony (of which Fejeran, a trombonist, is a member) and the Skagit Valley Concert Band, among other organizations.

Throughout its existence, the Skagit Community Band has taken pride in providing opportunities for talented young musicians and vocalists to solo. This Friday’s concert at Maple Hall is no exception, Fejeran said.

Emily Jennings will sing “Let it Go” from the film Frozen and the classic, “Moon River.”

The band has likewise fostered support for beginning music students by offering aid to school programs with instruments, equipment repair and fundraising.

It is little wonder, then, that the Skagit Community Band is the longest continual musical group of its kind in the valley.

“We’ve kind of been the group that has gone under the radar,” Fejeran notes. “We’ll do our concert at Gilkey Square in La Conner each August and people will come up and ask where we’ve played and how long we’ve been at this.”

The Skagit Community Band has been around long enough to have played at the opening of the I-5 rest stop north of Burlington, said Fejeran, a graduate of the University of Puget Sound and well known in jazz circles around the Puget Sound region.

Those attending the anniversary concert at Maple Hall will have a good idea of what the band is about simply by attending the silent auction beforehand. Many auction items have been donated by the band members themselves.

“A lot of those donations have come from their own businesses,” Fejeran said, “so it further highlights the diversity of our members.”

Auction proceeds will go to the band.

But the real payoff for its members is being able to again rehearse together and perform live concerts, like Friday’s.

“We’ve actually been back for a couple years,” said Fejeran, “but now we can do concerts without requiring immunizations and masking.”

Smiling faces will be among the evening’s positive notes.