By Phillip Spencer Huff–
Greetings of health and happiness from the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the Official Band of San Francisco! As musicians, we thrive on bringing people together in song and harmony, and I must say we truly miss seeing you at festivals, parades, and concerts. I’m happy to report that the Band is safe as our musicians shelter-in-place together with you.
Many of our musicians are among those essential workers putting themselves at heightened risk at work daily to get our community through the other side. A flutist/public health professional. A percussionist/hospital respiratory department manager. Trumpeters, saxophonists, and trombonists are nurses. We have doctors, mental health professionals, grocers, clerks, attendants, and government employees in our various sections. To them and everyone else who suddenly found their workplaces potentially hazardous to their health, we exclaim a resounding thank you!
I’d also like to say a special thank you to all of our musicians who are teachers. It’s been a difficult challenge for all teachers to transition to virtual learning, a challenge tackled with the customary zest and zeal common to those in the teaching profession. We can’t thank you enough for the dedication shown to your students.
For the Band, a key component of our mission is bringing people together, and we are exceptionally proficient in doing so. The Band has been a source of comfort during previous crises, even putting on a community concert on September 11, 2001, when all other local arts organizations had cancelled theirs. The question I and the rest of the Band faced when COVID-19 changed everything was, “How do we continue our mission and bring people together through music when we must keep apart?”
When we asked the question, the Band unsurprisingly sprang into action.
The Board of Directors came together, professionally addressing immediate issues. During the Band’s regular rehearsal time on Tuesdays, we all joined over video calls to stay connected and continue our music education, learning about the life and times of “America’s Mother,” Ernestine Schumann-Heink (definitely recommend looking her up!), and the origins of the instruments we play.
We also recorded the City’s official ballad, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” shelter-in-place style. The video was released on April 6, and we also put on a special live stream of the recording on April 25 when all of San Francisco came together to sing the ballad in unison. You can watch the video anytime through the Band’s website.
(https://www.sflgfb.org/press-and-media/media/ )
Do you have a favorite Freedom Band song? Let us know; we have other recordings planned and may be able to include your request!
We look forward to sharing these videos with you as they come out to bring moments of joy through music to your homes. We take our inspiration from Harvey Milk himself: “You’ve got to give them hope.”
In an exceptional time with unprecedented challenges, the Band’s adaptability, ingenuity, and perseverance has been nothing short of supersonic. Each week we come together with new and exciting ways of fulfilling our mission. Our drive to press onward to greater heights while marching forward with pride has never been stronger. At a time when humankind looks to the arts for relief, escape, and a glimmer of hope, the Official Band of San Francisco rises to the challenge to support and serve our community in the Bay Area. To say I am proud of our Band’s response feels like an understatement. The real emotion is much deeper, far more profound, and iterated individually 80-plus times over from the tops of our piccolos to the bottoms of our tubas.
As the Band transitions to virtual performances, we look forward to rescheduling concerts we had to postpone. Among those is Notes from the Peace Corps, a benefit concert originally scheduled in March to raise funds for the NorCal Peace Corps Association, in furtherance of numerous projects they support globally. Of course, there is also Spotlight on Broadway, the Band’s major fundraising event of the year, originally scheduled for this coming Saturday, May 9.
With our fundraiser cancelled, I humbly ask you to point your browser to our website and kindly consider participating in the President’s Shelter-in-Place Fundraiser ( https://www.sflgfb.org/support-the-band/presidents-fundraiser/ ).
We know times are difficult, but if you’re able to support us, your generosity now will help us to continue to provide virtual performances as well as returning from hiatus in a financially healthy position. All tax-deductible contributions are welcomed with the Band’s gratitude and my personal thanks. A special thanks also goes out to the San Francisco Bay Times for their decades of support, as well as to our major sponsors, Grants for the Arts, Horizons Foundation, and Folsom Street Events.
Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and get notified when our latest shelter-in-place videos release! You won’t want to skip a beat. ( https://www.facebook.com/sflgfb/ )
Brighter days are on the horizon. Together we will overcome this, and your Official Band looks forward to the day we can harmonize with each other—and you.
Phillip Spencer Huff is the President of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band.
Published on May 7, 2020
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