The Pottsville Area High School Stage Band has booked two shows with a well-known trumpeter and band leader, Dave Stahl.
"It's a very exciting time for the students," Craig N. Shoener, Pottsville Area band director, said Monday.
The first is slated for Thursday at Days Inn, Lebanon. The PAHS Stage Band will take stage at 6:45 p.m. and The Dave Stahl Big Band will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be $10 per person at the door, according to Shoener and Stahl's website, davestahl.com.
"My band plays there regularly and we have people who come out to hear us, so we have a following," Stahl said Monday. "On occasion, we like to give younger musicians the opportunity to come out and play. When high school musicians do competitions, they're playing for judges. But this is a different kind of atmosphere. It's the general public, people paying to come out to hear music."
The Pottsville Area Stage Band has also invited The Dave Stahl Big Band to perform at the 36th annual Pottsville Area High School Stage Band Concert, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. May 23 at the high school's Robert W. Wachter Auditorium. The Krimson Kats Jazz Group will also perform. Tickets are $5 each, according to a flyer for the event.
Born in Reading, Berks County, Jan. 23, 1949, Stahl said he learned to play trumpet from Walter Gier, Reading, who died in 1997.
"I only had one trumpet teacher in my life. Walter was a remarkable teacher, world class," Stahl said.
Since then, he has had opportunities to play all over the world. He assembled the first Dave Stahl Big Band in 1977 and the latest line-up is comprised of 15 band members, he said.
"We're a jazz band and we perform different styles and genres, from Latin to contemporary," said Stahl, who resides in New Berlinville, Berks County.
Since 1978, Stahl has been given opportunities to work with student musicians at Pottsville Area, according to Shoener.
Stahl said he's a friend of Richard Fries, who served as the band director at Pottsville Area High School for 38 years and retired at the end of the 2011-12 school year.
"I'd do something every so often. Sometimes, I'd just come up and do a trumpet clinic with the students," Stahl said.
Shoener, a 1981 graduate of Pottsville Area, said he was a freshman when Stahl held his first clinic with students there in April 1978.
Shoener, who became the district's band director when Fries retired, said two of his sons are trumpet players in the PAHS Stage Band, John Shoener, 17, a senior, and Jacob, 16, a sophomore.
"The program that Mr. Fries established was built on excellence, bringing in people like Dave Stahl to work with our students," Shoener said.
At the start of the school year, Shoener took a few members of the Pottsville Area Stage Band to hear Stahl's group perform in Lebanon. That's when Stahl expressed interest in booking events with the group.
"He was trying to do this last year but for whatever reason it didn't work out. But Dave was persistent about it," Shoener said.
The PAHS Stage Band is made up of 24 musicians, which include trumpets, saxophones, trombones and a rhythm section with piano and drums. The group is doing the show Thursday for experience, not pay, Shoener said.
"We have about 10 numbers prepared, but we have about 35 to 40 minutes, so I'm not sure how many we'll be able to do," Shoener said.
Among them is "Filthy McNasty" composed by Horace Silver, featuring Shoener's son, John, and senior Michael Halcovage, 17, on saxophone.
INFO BOX:
PAHS Stage Band at Lebanon.
What: The Pottsville Area High School Stage Band as opening act for The Dave Stahl Big Band
Where: Day's Inn (formerly Quality Inn), 625 Quentin Road, Lebanon, Pa.
When: Thursday, with PAHS Stage Band performing at 6:45 p.m. and The Dave Stahl Big Band performing at 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $10 per person at the door
Information: davestahl.com
Source: Craig N. Shoener, Pottsville Area band director