Tradition lives on: Community Band returns for annual Fourth of July concert
Girls give conducting a go during the Community Band's concert on Sunday, July 5. Photos by Abby Van Selous
Percussionists perform in the concert.
Concertgoers lounge in lawn chairs to listen to the music.
Neil Sylvia, center, has been playing in the Community Band since the 80s.
Clarinetists perform in the Fourth of July concert.
Concert goers listen to the band play patriotic songs.
John Furtado conducts the band.
The Fourth of July concert was the Community Band's first concert this year.
Attendees stand for the National Anthem.
The Dartmouth Community Band performs in front of the old Russells Mills Schoolhouse.
Girls give conducting a go during the Community Band's concert on Sunday, July 5. Photos by Abby Van Selous
Percussionists perform in the concert.
Concertgoers lounge in lawn chairs to listen to the music.
Neil Sylvia, center, has been playing in the Community Band since the 80s.
Clarinetists perform in the Fourth of July concert.
Concert goers listen to the band play patriotic songs.
John Furtado conducts the band.
The Fourth of July concert was the Community Band's first concert this year.
Attendees stand for the National Anthem.
The Dartmouth Community Band performs in front of the old Russells Mills Schoolhouse.
For around 50 years the Dartmouth Community Band has been performing its annual Fourth of July concert, and nearly every year life-long Dartmouth residents Cindy Rumbut and Margie Walder have attended.
“We’ve come every year since forever,” Rumbut said. She recalled attending the concert with her toddler — who is now 38-years-old — and before that, to watch her mom perform in the band.
She added, “We just always want to come.”
Rumbut and Walder’s friend Janine Carreau, who started attending the concert with them around five years ago, said that it’s become “kind of a nice nostalgic thing to do.”
Rumbult said that the concert reminds her of “everything we grew up with” and said it “feels really good.”
Held on Sunday, July 5, the concert featured patriotic songs like “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “God Bless the USA,” “America the Beautiful,” and “The National Emblem.”
Walder called the concert a “tradition” and said that the concert always reminds her of a Norman Rockwell painting.
“It has such patriotism, and it’s great seeing the band again and again,” she said.
This was a sentiment shared by long-time band member and percussionist Neil Sylvia, who said that every time the Community Band performs their Fourth of July concert it’s “almost like a little slice of a Norman Rockwell painting.”
"It’s as wholesome as you can get,” he said.
As a percussionist, Sylvia stands in the back of the band, where he gets to "watch a 50-year-old sit next to a 12-year-old, next to an 80-year-old."
He called it a "cross section of society" and noted that the musicians play in the volunteer band because "we want to come together as a community."
Around 50 people attended the concert this year, which took place in front of the Russells Mills Schoolhouse.
Sylvia said the band was “happy with the crowd" and added, "People were smiling, and that’s probably the best thing."
During the concert, concertgoers tapped their feet and clapped their hands while kids were given a chance to conduct the band and were given American flags to wave.
Community Band Conductor John Furtado said, “It’s really nice when you finish the concert and somebody from the audience comes up and says, ‘“Wow, I haven’t heard a band play ‘God Bless America’ since I was a young school girl.”
“We just try to do the classic patriotic tunes that people remember,” he added.
Sylvia noted that there may be variation in which songs are played year-to-year, but the concert always holds the same message: “We all have our differences, but at the end of the day, we’re all part of this nation, and it’s a time for us to celebrate this nation.”
