I was very fortunate to grow up with a father who was a Veteran.  My dad served in WWII and was part of the 76^th Infantry Division where he served both as a soldier and also a musician.  As a kid, I spent a good amount of time around WWII Vets, as a lot of his friends served.  He was also involved in the local American Legion Post as well as later in his life working for a veterans in need organization.  So, needless to say, my education of the importance of our military and those who served was instilled in me at a young age.

When I was in the sixth grade at the Alpha Public School, I began playing Taps for military funerals.  At that time, the American Legion Post #446 of Alpha, NJ had a color guard detail that would attend funerals to provide the military honors for a veteran.  It was around that time that I was beginning to play in the Alpha Legion Band, which my dad directed. So, when it came time to play Taps, I would bring my uniform to school and when my dad came to sign me out, I would change and be on the way.  This opportunity continued throughout my high school years.  If my class schedule permitted, it was important to me to go and play.   To this day, if called, I will try to accommodate the request if I possibly can.

Although the summer of 2020 will forever be known as the “Summer of Covid,” it did provide me with a great opportunity to pair the love I have for the Battle of Gettysburg and The Civil War with the honor and duty of performing Taps. The Lincoln Fellowship, in partnership with Taps for Veterans, and the Gettysburg National Military Park, presented a nightly program called 100 Nights of Taps every evening from Memorial Day through Labor Day at the Soldier’s Monument in the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The event is open to anyone.  To be considered to perform, one must submit an application to the committee who makes the decision on who is selected to perform.  This year, buglers representing 17 states were selected to come to Gettysburg. I had the honor of performing on July 31^st and again on September 4^th .

The Gettysburg National Cemetery was created shortly after the battle. After 3 days of fighting in the tiny town on July 1-3, 1863, the result of the conflict would forever change the landscape and importance of the community.  The aftermath of the battle left carnage and destruction throughout the town. Most of the farms were decimated and many farmers lost everything. With over 7000 Union and Confederate deaths in just three days of fighting, prominent Gettysburg attorney David Wills led a group to acquire land and establish a national cemetery for the battle on what is known as Cemetery Hill.  With a unified effort throughout the North, the creation of the cemetery happened very quickly. The official dedication occurred on November 19, 1863, which featured President Abraham Lincoln and the delivery of the immortal Gettysburg Address.  The centerpiece of the cemetery would be the soldier’s monument, which would not be completed until 1865.  The impressive 60 foot tall monument was designed as an allegory, which would tell a story of peace and plenty following a historic struggle. There are over 3500 Union soldiers buried here as well as other veterans from the Civil War to Vietnam.

For the nightly program, the buglers stand on the base of the monument to play.  It is awe inspiring to be standing on such an important and solemn location for our American history.  To honor those who served in the turning point battle of the Civil War, a war, which forever changed our country to make all men equal is a proud moment for me. The grounds of the cemetery played an important role in the battle, one that you can feel upon entering the cemetery. 

I was thankful to have been chosen for this honor.  It was a very special and significant moment in my life, one, which I will never forget.  I was overjoyed to be able to go out for a second opportunity in September.  I look forward to applying again in 2021 and a hope to have an opportunity to once again pay respect to those who served…

The summer of 2018 has been one of unique opportunity for me.  For as long as I can remember, every summer would present itself with various concerts, festivals and outdoor gigs to play. The setting of dusk underneath the bright moon with the warm breeze of the hot summer night is very typical for all the summer gigs I play.  Of course, with the many days of extreme heat this summer, an out-door concert posed to be a bit more challenging!  Nonetheless, the summer concert season was made a little different with a few unique and personal opportunities for me.

In June, my wedding band, Generations (www.vposwing.com) had the privilege of being hired to play for the wedding of Ronnie Lord and Cassy Vash. If you didn’t already know, Cassy was a former student of mine who is currently living in Texas working as an engineer within the highway department system of Texas. She is doing very well and I am very proud of her.  Generations also played for her sister Helen’s wedding in 2014. So, it was a great honor for me to have the chance to play for a family that I am very close with.  As you can see in the photos, her wedding was held at the Loft at Jacks Barn (www.jacksbarn.com) in Hackettstown, NJ. The theme was very rustic and tailored to be very personal to both Cassy and Ronnie.  Since Cassy lives in Texas and is not able to travel to New Jersey that often, the day was even that much more special for the family and everyone involved.  We were part of both the ceremony and reception.  Everyone had a great time and the band had everyone dancing throughout. I am very thankful to Cassy, Ron and their family for allowing us to be a part of their most special day.

If you’ve read any of my past blogs, you maybe aware of the Ken Brader Holiday Brass Quartet that I play with have been playing the national anthem at various events. (www.facebook.com/groups/659018100807942/)  This summer, we were chosen to play at a home game for the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizen Bank Park in Philadelphia on June 26.  The chance to play at a major league stadium regardless of who the home team is, presents a great opportunity. But, there is definitely more pressure upon us as 40,000 fans, players, and workers are standing at attention as we play on the field with cameras in our faces as it is being displayed on the big stadium screen. We were blessed with great weather that day and I want to humbly say that we hit a homerun with our performance.  This video was taken by the Phillies staff and they did a great job. (www.phillies.com)

We had two more nice opportunities to play the anthem this summer.  On Friday and Saturday, Aug. 3-4, we were asked to perform for the Drum Corps International semifinal performance at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown, PA.  Drum Corps, or DCI for short (www.dci.org) is marching band for those serious students between ages 18-21. They work and travel all over the country all summer long leading up to the finals and championships in mid August.  Those in attendance are musicians and fans of brass music. So, this was a nice chance to play to a crowd who truly enjoy what we do. We also had a chance to again play for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on August 27^th for their final home game before the playoffs begin.  Although not the size of the Phillies stadium, it still is a great place to play and we enjoy every chance we have to play there.  This year, the Iron Pigs had the best record in the league and will be playing Scranton beginning September 5^th in the playoffs. It is a best of 5 series. If they go to a 4^th game, that will be Saturday, September 8^th and we will again be playing for that important game.

I finished up the summer by joining the band once again to be a part of Gloria’s Miami Sound, the best Gloria Estefan Tribute Band in America. (www.facebook.com/gloriasmiamisound/)  Led by the husband and wife team of Nikki Torres and Bill Ciamarelli, this band is awesome and a pleasure to play with. The show was held at the Cold Spring Country Club in Long Island, New York.  A top- notch band comprised of the best New York has to offer, I always enjoy meeting and performing with these musicians. I always look forward to working with Bill and Nikki in this band or their other very popular band New York Minute  (www.facebook.com/NYMinuteBand/) (see photo)

For me, these opportunities paved the way for a nice summer of music and gigs.  I am always glad to play and enjoy the life, but, it adds a special touch when you have some new events to perform helping those you know to share a beautiful moment in their life.  Plus, to be able to share the stage with talented musicians is always a great experience.

The success of the first coffee house in October made one thing very clear for the church. They liked the idea of new events and a time for fellowship. It was in January that myself, Connie Sabatine and Jeff Barrows sat down with the pastor and proposed our plan to hold a concert in June and follow it with an Italian dinner. Calling it “Italian Night” we would be able to entertain our guests and then provide a delicious home cooked Italian meal.  I knew this combination would be a great fit.

Building off of our success with the Interfaith Choral Festival in November, I had searched for an opportunity for the choir besides the coffee house and singing in church on selected Sunday mornings.   I believe if you want your ensemble to grow and become more mature, you need to find new outlets to perform in and a new audience to sing for.  Stretching yourself out of your comfort zone will definitely do that.  Since we have never sung more than two sections in a row, this opportunity to perform a full concert can only help us become a better choir.  I can now select literature of varying styles ranging from secular to Sacred as well as material that is better suited for a concert as opposed to just a Sunday service.  This is exactly what I did. I chose several songs including “Cantate Domino” which is partially sung in Latin. Although not terribly difficult, it is a good concert song that allows me to teach more advanced musical concepts as well as introducing Latin to our members.

In addition to Cantate Domino, we are performing Instrument of Peace, A Thousandfold, An Irish Blessing, Joshua, Make a Joyful Noise, A Mighty Fortress is our God and The Christ Child is Born will be our Sacred selections.  But, we also have a few non Sacred songs to provide a little fun and they include Bring Him Home from Les Miserables, Stand By Me and the traditional college song Vive L’Amour.  There will also be a special selection sung by Jeff Barrows.

I am definitely proud of the choir and the work they have put in so far to make this concert a success.  Like other church choirs, our membership has a varied level of musical talent with some having music and choral experience to those who this is the first time they have ever sung in a choir.  But, they are developing nicely and working towards my high expectations of them.

The dinner part just fit so nicely into the plans. It does provide a night out for our guests with dinner included.  Plus, it is all for free.  Where can you go in our society today that you can get a good concert and a full dinner all for free?  I am excited to know that many of our guests are not just going to be regular members of the congregation.  We will have family and friends from out of town, those from other churches, and even those who don’t go to church at all.  This is a nice opportunity for anyone who has never been inside our church to meet our members, have a chance to walk through the church and get a feel for who we are and what we stand for.  If opening up our church can even change one persons life for the better, than it is all worth it.

After the concert, I will be the disc jockey for the dinner.  I will be playing many of the great Italian favorites and dinner classics associated with the great country of Italy.  It stands to be a beautiful night for everyone.

I do need to tell you that entrance to both the concert and dinner is by ticket only. You will be only able to get into the dinner by having a ticket. Right now we have very few seats left. If you are interested, please call me and I will try to save you one.  However, if you don’t care about the dinner and just want to come and hear the concert, you can do that.  Just come on in!

If you have any questions or would like to inquire if we still have tickets remaining, please call me at 908-619-4502 and I can give you more information.

As you may have read from my other blog posts, the quartet has performed the past 2 years at a home game of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, which are the AAA affiliate of the Phillies.  That is always a special experience and, even though it is minor league baseball, is still a cool thing to be on the field by home plate to play.  When we performed in September 2017, I inquired to the events coordinator who booked us, what would we need to do to be selected to perform for the major league team.  He instructed me to wait until January and then check out their website for info about it.  Well, I found the site and it required me to fill out an application and more importantly, include several videos of us performing.  Well, considering we had a good video of playing in the previous September, I felt our chances would be ok.  To my surprise, on February 16^th I received an email from the Phillies congratulating us on being selected to perform.  I had figured this might be political and you more or less needed a connection or had to know someone to be asked to perform.  But, that was not the case.  They had liked our arrangement and sound and wanted us to be there.  Now, we needed to review the schedule and select find a date to play.

The Phillies required you to visit the schedule and select 5 dates. From these dates they would select your day and you would have to play for that game.  You couldn’t just send in one date and that was it. As I checked the schedule, I realized that this was the year that the Yankees would be going to Philly for a three game set (June 25-27).  So, I quickly selected our five dates with June 26^th being a favorite and replied.  A few days later I was pleasantly surprised to read the email that they gave us June 26^th to perform.  As you can probably assume, I was thrilled.  It has been probably 5-6 years since I have been to a major league baseball game let alone a Yankee game.  Going to the Bronx for a Yankees home game really isn’t an ideal situation. The travel to the Bronx, parking, food, etc. is just really costly and something I didn’t feel is worth the money to spend.  But, now it is much easier to travel to Philadelphia and as a perk, we are given preferred parking for free! We do have to buy our tickets, but, the parking alone is worth it. So, to have a chance to go see the Yankees in person but not have to deal with the cost and travel to go to New York is something I am extremely looking forward to.

It will definitely be a great experience for us.  I can remember being in high school when each year the band played the national anthem in the outfield at the old Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia.  But, that was always on a hot Sunday afternoon and our tickets were usually in the 700 level high up in the outfield’s nose bleed section.  We were told that most likely the anthem would not be live on television, only showed on the ballpark screens. But, we would be able to have a copy for ourselves. Who knows if we may be on TV at all or maybe even partially. But, it is still a great experience to perform as well as knowing that once that is over, I can sit back and enjoy watching Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorious, Gary Sanchez and the rest of the New York Yankees all thanks to the Phillies!!