June 9, 2005

One final song

With the band going well, Drysdale decides to step down as conductor

By Jennifer Squires
Ashland Daily Tidings

Southern Oregon Concert Band Conductor John Drysdale is stepping down after 15 years of participation. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings

This might be the last clipping in the Southern Oregon Concert Band scrapbook for retiring conductor John E. Drysdale.

“I told them two years ago … that I would plan to conduct until I’m 80,” said Drysdale, who turned 80 in March and thought now, when he is in good health and the band is doing well, would be the ideal time to step down.

He directed his final Southern Oregon Concert Band show in the damp Lithia Park bandshell on Tuesday evening, 15 years after he first joined the band as a French horn player.

The overcast weather and light rain kept the crowd sparse — family members of the 62 musicians, a few passers-by and a group of residents from one of the local retirement facilities watched the annual show from underneath umbrellas — but the inclement conditions did not hold back the band.

“The band really rose to the occasion,” Drysdale said after the show, where he promised to return from time to time as a guest conductor and got a round of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” from the band in return.

Drysdale, a World War II Navy veteran, closed his final show with “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Over the years, he has made a habit of honoring veterans with military favorites. The band also played “Armed Forces Salute” at Tuesday’s concert and invited all veterans and their families to stand while the song rang out.

Drysdale likes to play songs people recognize and enjoy, although he picked some of his favorites for the final concert.

“I like the Latin America/Spanish-type things,” he said. “Those are very exciting.”

The band marches on

The Southern Oregon Concert Band began as the all-male Hillah Temple Shrine Band in 1909 and, under Drysdale’s direction, started including female performers in the early 1990s. The band is now “almost half-and-half” men and women, according to Drysdale.

“I was interested in building a more musical organization. … It has attracted more players and, from a 35-member band, we’re now over 60,” he said, explaining he had to ask permission to allow women to play. “Some of those folks are just like family to me.”

The musicians come from 12 communities throughout Southern Oregon for the once-a-week rehearsals at Ashland Middle School and perform four or five times a year. The youngest musicians are in the 20s, and the oldest are retirees in their 70s and 80s.

Yair Strauss, who directed one number at Tuesday evening’s show, will become the new Southern Oregon Concert Band conductor in September.

A half-century in the Valley

Formally trained as a violinist and a French horn player in the Navy band, Drysdale spent 34 years as a music educator in Klamath Falls, Redmond and Medford. He was an orchestra and band instructor, as well as music curriculum director, in the Medford School District from 1953-83.

“He was the same then as he is now,” said Medford resident Jim Hawkins, 47, a former student of Drysdale’s at Medford Senior High School. “He cracks his little jokes. ... He doesn’t seem to forget a beat.”

Drysdale graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in music and Southern Oregon College with a teaching certification and, after so many years in education, plays all of the string and brass instruments, as well as several woodwinds.

And, when he’s not playing or conducting, he hums tunes to himself or sings tidbits of songs.

Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or jsquires@dailytidings.com.