By Daphne Jackson
For many amateur musicians in small towns, it can be difficult to find opportunities to continue making music after graduating from a school band. For musicians in the Bitterroot Valley, the Bitterroot Community Band provides a chance to keep going.
Jeremy Ruff, who has been the director of the Bitterroot Community Band for the last three years, said the band’s members have a wide range of experience and skill levels.
“We have novices who’ve only played for a few years sitting next to some players that are of a professional capacity,” he said. “We just invite anybody who wants to just sit down and play with us. The valley band directors help to push it along; we have some students that join the group, high school or junior high age students. We might have a 13-year-old sit next to a 75-year-old on occasion, and that’s a lot of fun. I think it teaches the kids that music can be a life-long endeavor. You don’t have to quit playing music when you graduate from high school.”
While his interest in teaching it started in college, Ruff said music has had a constant presence in his life from a young age. Ruff, who has been a band teacher at Stevensville High School for 10 years, said many of the valley’s school band directors also play with the community band, alongside community members with less experience.
“We’ve had members join us that hadn’t played in 10, 15 years,” he said. “The mother that has kids and doesn’t find time to play for a long time, and wants to get back into it, and relearns her instrument and gets back into a performance setting, we have a lot of those stories and a lot of those situations. Sometimes it can take some time getting used to it, and practicing and getting back into it, but I’ve found that everybody that’s given it a try has really found it to be worthwhile, and that’s pretty fun to see.”
Ruff said his favorite part of the band is the performances, and the camaraderie that comes with making music with other people.
Chris Porter, one of the band’s board members, said he thinks the band provides an opportunity for community music.
“There really aren’t many local bands, for adults, anymore,” said Porter. “There’s a few other ones, but they’re not as established as this one and we kind of go through a lot of repertoire, which is kind of nice just because you get to play a lot of band stuff. Missoula has the city band, which is always fun too, but in the Bitterroot… as close as Missoula is, it’s not that close. It’s nice to have it down here.”
Porter said he has talked to people, including his wife, who said they might be interested in joining the band, but feel nervous about their skill level, which he said was an unnecessary concern.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people that say ‘well, you know, I feel like I want to practice and get better before I come play with the band’,” he said. “And I don’t feel like that’s actually necessary at all. We’re mostly trying to just have fun, not do everything exactly perfectly.”
Ruff said he usually tries to choose lighter pieces of music to go with the summer park setting, which he said is well suited for music like marches, Broadway and movie themes, and pop. He said, although he buys some music for the band, most of it is borrowed from the valley’s school band music libraries.
“I can keep it fresh because I’m buying new stuff for my kids, because I want to keep my library fresh for them, using current and contemporary works, especially with the pop or Broadway or movie themes,” Ruff said. “So if I keep my library fresh, I can always use that in the Community Band library. And the other directors in the valley are really good about that. So that’s always a nice resource.”
Ruff said the number of active members fluctuates, since many people have busy summer schedules and don’t attend all the rehearsals or performances, but there are usually 25 to 35 performers at each concert.
“Members come and go, depending on schedules and stuff like that,” he said. “We encourage everybody to just play when they can, because not everybody can commit to the entire summer, and we’d never ask that of anybody, because it is a large commitment.”
The band has two remaining performances this year, at the Ravalli County Fair on September 3, and Stevensville’s Founders Day celebration on September 24.
Ruff said anyone interested in playing with the Bitterroot Community Band can reach out to him or another band member directly, or email bitterrootcband@gmail.com for more information.