Pawleys Island Concert Band salutes the season

The Pawleys Island Concert Band really gets into a groove at this time of year. The group, which has performed at three other spots this month in Georgetown County, will play its 12th annual Christmas concert, for free at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Pawleys Island Community Church, 101304 Ocean Highway.

Carson Turner of Carolina Forest, the music director and a former flute and piccolo player for the U.S. Army, joined the Pawleys Island band in 2006 with his woodwind, and since the conductor spot opened soon thereafter, he has viewed himself as “just another member of the band who happens to wave the stick.”

“I like to explain it,” Turner said of the musicians’ camaraderie, “as, I drive the train, and they explain to me where the train should go.”

The more than 30 band mates range in age from 14 to 82, some of whom Turner said “have been in this band for every single concert” since its forming with 12 players in 2004. A few also volunteer time in other local bands he saluted for their service in entertaining the community: Festive Brass of Myrtle Beach, the North Myrtle Beach Community Band, and Stardusters Big Band.

Question | With this 12th annual Christmas Concert coming up Tuesday, what selections have become the Pawleys band’s signature pieces a la the Boston Pops’ “Sleigh Ride”?

Answer | Every concert, we try to do something that pushes the limit. This season, that’s “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.” Also, with “Sleigh Ride”: We do almost every season.

We open and close every performance the same way – in the tradition of the town band. We open with the national anthem and close with the national march of the United States (Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever”), and in the middle, it’s a very wide range of musical styles and genres from traditional orchestral transcriptions to recent popular music. We’ve played Handel, Haydn and Mozart. We’ve played the Beatles and Rolling Stones. We like Broadway and Hollywood a lot. We’ve even done our own take on bluegrass. And, of course, marches.

Q. | What yuletide classics take the most to prepare and deliver, with the most integrated parts that we the everyday listener might not appreciate or realize enough?

A. | “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” just because it’s really hard to start with; and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” ... We’re going to have a saxophone and flute talk to each other for the vocals.

Q. | What other annual concerts remain standard operating procedure year after year, and what room is made on the calendar for other traditions?

A. | We do two formal concerts per year. The spring concert in April is a pops concert. Our fall concert each December is traditional Christmas. We also provide the music for the Fourth of July celebration at Precious Blood of Christ Catholic Church in Pawleys Island each year with what becomes a traditional patriotic summer concert.

The tradition of community bands for more than 100 years is the support of civic events, particularly patriotic events. ... We’ve done Veterans Day and Memorial Day at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10420 in Murrells Inlet for several years now. This year, we also did Veterans Day down in Andrews. We also provided patriotic music for the new memorial being placed in Georgetown this past spring. After the fire on Front Street last year, we performed at the community fundraiser by the Georgetown Arts Council. We’ve also supported the Pawleys Island Festival of Music & Art and the Friends of Huntington Beach State Park with live music. ... Of course, any chance we get to play some Christmas carols out and about is something we particularly enjoy. We perform for the residents of Lakes at Litchfield before each of our Christmas and Spring Pops concerts as our dress rehearsals. Over the decade-plus, we’ve gone from performing twice per year to scheduling more than a dozen performances per year.

Q. | How much a bonus is having a musician roster spanning various ages and backgrounds, and what has been the most treasured position to keep filled? Tympanist?

A. | Our tympanist, Gary Mason, is the band president, and he owns those tympani. He used to play with the Chattanooga Symphony. ... There is no person who if not in the band, that the show wouldn’t go on. ... We have four trumpeters, but sometimes we have six parts, which these four are covering. We have one tuba player. ... We also have no section where it’s “Oh, my gosh,” we have too many of those. ... We welcome anybody who would like to play. We have no auditions, and we don’t assign seats. In the trumpet section, for example, they work it out together.

Q. | What extra, unannounced joy comes from playing in this band, united solely by love of music and making a difference and memory for everyone who attends a concert?

A. | We just love the music. ... For the musicians, band is a musical tool. ... For some folks, this is a way to exercise their mind. Playing music is kind a mental endeavor, ... with paying attention to the conductor and to what you’re reading, and pushing buttons. Then, it’s a social thing: We come together once a week, to play and practice with friends we love.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Pawleys Island Concert Band salutes the season."