Let's talk music. Let's talk bill city brass works. We have Doug Johnson and Katie Humphrey.
Katie, what instrument do you play again? French horn. French horn. Yeah. Now you're
playing a several bands. You don't just play in this one. You're multi-bandile, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's all the time for.
How many bands are you playing? Four. Four. Wow. Now I know you play the
Brazilian concert band, Bell City brass works and Kenosha Pops and UW Parkside community orchestra.
Oh, you keep it all straight, huh? Now let me ask you this question. What if two of them had
a performance on the same night? Where do you go? Well, luckily, they all communicate.
No, no, no, no. That wasn't the question. That wasn't the question. Don't
obey the question. Where would, let's say, Bell City brass works because you got the
conductor right here. Okay. And let's say, and Kenosha Pops at a concert in the same night.
Where do you go? Careful. This is a pretty easy question. He's sitting right here. I mean,
you don't have to. Yes, of course, I would pick Bell City brass. Yeah, right there.
Disguised sitting here. Oh, I know. You can sit Kenosha Pops right in front of what's
the matter with you? All right. We got Doug Johnson, conductor and French hornist.
Is that it? It's a term. Yes. French hornist. Yes. Is it really? I just made that on.
Katie, I'm freezing in a roll. Now you guys have, you know, this coming week, obviously,
St. Patrick's Day is on the 17th and you guys have a concert on the 22nd. Songs from the Scottish
Highlands. Oh, yes, the Pita. Yes. And the Moors and the Pete in the Wow. That's right.
So you're getting the mood this weekend. And then you keep it going. Yeah.
Because they got a big thing over at festival hall this weekend. Yeah.
Shamrox and shenanigans. Well, so you get all juiced up and then you're ready to go on.
Where are these seconds? Right. So give us some of the music of Ireland. You're going to be
flying. Oh, not Ireland. Scotland. Scottish. Scottish.
Here we go. We got to get it. Absolutely. The right. Absolutely.
He's got a shaman. Yeah. No, the music that we're doing is written by Philips Park is from his
suite from the Highlands, him of the Highlands. And it's it's absolutely gorgeous music. It'd be
very hard to describe, except once you start listening to it, you know, you're in Scotland.
You've got to be there because it has the drones of it sounds like the bagpipes are playing
the background and these beautiful melodies played and Eric Weiss just does this fantastic
job on all of his solo. So it's it's really a great thing. We have a number of really.
Oh, yes. We do. We got fantastic soloists. This is concert. Almost everybody,
although leadership in the group is playing solo in somewhere in this concert.
You know, one of my favorite movies is Brigadoune. Oh, yeah. I love Brigadoune.
Well, I don't know. It's about two guys from New York City who go hunting in the Scottish
Highlands and somehow come across this village that wakes up every hundred years. Right.
And they fall in love with at least one of them does.
Gene Kelly Van Van Johnson wants to go home. And the music is so good. Yes.
I mean, Heather on the Hill. Right. I can name all the songs from Brigadoune.
I love it. You mean you're playing Brigadoune music? Not on this concert.
No, not on this one. No, no, no. We're going strictly with hymns that you haven't heard from,
heard of before, from home, which is a it's a beautiful hymn. And it's about a little
it's a little house on a home on the sea. And it it's a church that plays it's a beautiful
beautiful hymn. I think you'd absolutely love it. But I don't think there's anything on this
concert that you are not going to go that was really a great piece of music. I love the way
they play. And it just takes you to another world. You know what? On top of that we got two high
school students coming to play. I'm about to say you got some award winning scholarship high school
students. Yeah, we get those students are for our memorial scholarship that they've run for many
years. And this year we have two winners. The second place student was Richard Jimenez
Munoz. And he's from Horlick high school. He's playing trumpet solo, the Hummel trumpet and
Gerto. And then our other person though we've got coming in as Dalin aren't from tremper high school.
And he's playing Brian the Waves, which was written by Herbert L Clark. And he was fantastic in his
solo. So come back and come to this concert. I guarantee you at Holy Communion, you're going to
have the time of your life listening to great music. That's right. That's right. It's your
soul. That's how I want to describe it. It will feed your soul. Because it's the kind of music
that's very emotion promoting. Yes, bringing back the hit of this of Scotland. Oh, yes.
Very nice. We had a rehearsal last night and I'm still kind of on the board. It's fabulous
music. Now this is going to be at Holy Communion, the Lutheran Church. This is right over here on
Sixth Street, not far right from here. Yeah, up on the hill. Yeah. Up on the hills of Scotland.
Receive this concert. Oh, we're looking the moors. Have you ever been to Scotland? No,
boy else. That's pretty close. You don't have been. No, I haven't been outside of
Racine. But yes, I. I want to know how far out we can go. Well, actually, we could say almost
every safety union. But I have been to Europe. But that was a few years ago with a
park high school orchestra. Were we went and toured Europe? And that was a fantastic trip.
With all those slip with all those high school kids, huh? He listened. We had a great time. But
be honest with you, have all the trips that I've taken with kids. I would love to take those trips
without kids for a change. I took my daughter on Cruises and that was enough. She was a teenager.
Yeah. Teenagers want to be on the move. I wanted to relax. She said, let's do something.
Yep. Yeah, we did a lot of stuff. Well, that's great. Where'd you go to Europe?
Oh, I forgot. It was just before 9-11, the year before 9-11. Oh, wow. And we made that trip,
came back 9-11 happened. And you couldn't leave town after that. Yeah.
But it was an absolutely great trip for the kids. And that's the thing about music. You
connect it to so many different things. We played great music that augmented Austria.
Mozart and just gorgeous things. And this concert has turned around probably is one of the best
concerts I think we're ever going to put out just gorgeous music. It does sound like nice music.
Whoa. It's a song of the Scottish Highlands. Admission price is
for me. Look at that. Look at that. How do you guys turn a profit when this is for you? Yeah,
we are very happy today. Everybody there. Please fill that church out of the stockholders deal
with that. Yeah. Well, we're pretty happy with things at the moment. We do a free will offering,
but there's no pressure. Yes. Well, that's great. But we do like the doors until you pay.
Yeah. I'm just kidding. How many orchestras you part of? Let's see. I'm in four bands in the
Stoten area. I live in Stoten, Wisconsin. I'll just outside of Madison. So I'm playing at jazz
band. A brass ensemble that I started up there. Then I play in a small Dixie group.
We have a bell choir that plays there and we're in the city band there. So that may be more than I
think. And then direct this group. Bell City brass works. And I also play in the
Parkside Orchestra. Yes. My goodness. It's behind me there. Yeah. Yeah. I do this.
Yeah. We're playing a few groups. I'm retired now. So I cut back a little. I was about to say,
how do you make a living if you find time to actually work the drill press?
Oh, well, you know, I did retire from a Racine Unified back. I'll see when COVID started.
Oh, really? Your school teacher? Yeah, I was. Yeah, I taught in the Racine School District
for 43 years. Music? Yeah. Park High School. Oh, wow.
Oh, I'm early. So let me ask about students involved in the music program because I would
I would send grammar school and they tossed me out of the end because they said you can't play.
I just was terrible. So they I think I told you that story. Yes. Yeah. Super intended.
And I think you approved it pretty well to throw me out. Actually, I took a drum. So I was back
in the band again. Yeah. And yeah, the rest is history. The you find students get a lot of
promise in Racine schools. Oh, yeah. Fantastic students. These two young men that are performing
with us this time are examples of some of the excellent students we've had. But over the years,
we've had many students become professionals. We've got students right now that performing
on Broadway. I got students that are writing music in LA for movies performing with the large
groups. Yeah, going around the country. I grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin and went to Trimper High.
And we had a migratuating class of of 28 seniors that were in the band that year,
20 of us make our living in the music. I had Joseph Williams on the air with me a few weeks ago.
He's the lead singer for Toto. Yeah, my group. His dad is John Williams. He composed her
Star Wars. Oh, right. This is the Lost Ark. It's the extra terrestrial. Oh, yeah. Everything
steep in Spielberg. Yeah, Schindler's list. Right. Jaws. And that's his dad. Yeah. And he said,
wow, and his mother was in the movie Carousel. She's also over for him. And his grandmother,
it was on the Dick Van Dyke show and Griffith, all those shows Danny Thomas. Yeah.
What a family. He sang a Kudematana. And can you feel the love tonight in the movie,
the animated film The Lion King? He was the voice of the singing. Oh, fantastic. He didn't do the
talking. He just right singing voice of it. What a family. Yeah. Yeah. It works that way
for quite a few families. Once you get into music, you're really into it. My wife plays French
orange. She plays in the groups that I play in and Belsi brass works in the symphony. But
my daughter is both played instruments. Their children all played instruments or were dancers.
My youngest grandson is high school choir director in Iowa and right now. And doing a fantastic
job. They're unbelievably talented. My youngest granddaughter is in the Army band up in Minnesota,
playing the National Guard band, doing a fantastic job with that. She graduates from college
this year and is moving on to other things in her life. But absolutely loves music.
We have been very blessed to have all of these kids, all of us being involved in music and
a really cute people together. It's just a wonderful thing to do. And music like this concert
is the epitome of what you want to have because after every number, it just reaches into your soul
and makes you want to just be yourself in the beautiful music that you're listening to.
You know, it's had in between singing Africa and holding the line with Toto, he composes movie
scores. Oh, fantastic. And just like his father. The films aren't as big yet. No, not yet.
But he's getting there. Yeah. But his father's 94. Yep. And he just went out to Boston to work on
the newest Steven Spielberg score. Yeah. 94. Well, yeah. Come on, we've got to hold his
up. I think you're going to say, how old are you? 97? What are we? We've got, we've got a
troublemaker in a group of this 97. So I think you'll, I think you'll, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You're looking at Katie. Well, Katie, how old are you? And I was just hoping that her mind was working
faster than mine was. Wow, you're, that's how old you are, Katie. Why do you still play?
Okay, we're talking to Doug Johnson, conductor and French hornist, Katie Humphrey from Bell City
Brass Works. They got a big concert coming up songs from the Scottish Highlands. And this is
coming up Sunday March 22nd at 3 p.m. It's going to be the Holy Communion, Holy Communion Lutheran
Church 2000. What's 6th Street right over here? That's hard for me to say. West 6th Street. Yes.
Yeah, I have a list. And it's very hard for people to listen. Yeah, very hard to say.
And this will feature two students from which school are they now? One is from Horlick High School,
Richard Jimenez Munoz is from Horlick High School. And the other young man is Dalin Arnt from
Trepper High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Would you get the sponsors in? I want to make sure we
get their names. Oh, the sponsors. That's good. Oh, we've worked with these people over the years.
Pasetti's Maestro of Music. That has been a story. It was Mani Mitkas way back in the day. Greg
and Terry Mackie, Greg is a member of the band. And he gave that in honor of his, let's see, his
children, I think, and that was fantastic to have. And we have a few others too that are involved
in that as I quickly turn my pages to find my information. Roger Paulman Chevrolet has been a
sponsor of the group, a major sponsor, a pioneer drum and bugle core. And the St. David's Society
of Racine. Racine. Yes. Those are our major sponsors. These are people that have donated a
considerable amount of funds over a thousand dollars each to sponsor the group for the year. So
and then that's how we get free concerts. Oh, that's how we get free concerts. And we also ask people
if they want to donate to the group to become a sponsor to get on that list. And we got many
different levels of being a sponsor of the group for $50 years, sort of like National Public Radio,
Wisconsin Public Radio, where you get donors for the year and that helps defray all of our costs
and really makes it quite easy for us to keep running the way we are. We don't sell ads. We just
have you come and enjoy the music and have a great time with you're with us. And we acknowledge
the sponsors on the program every concert. Yep. Give a little history of the Bell City brass
works. How will we talk in here? Let's see. I've been with them now 27 years. I think we're a
little bit past our 40th 42nd years. We started over 40 years ago. This is our 37th. It seems
long. All right. So I'm not all that Greek with numbers. But we're working on it. But yeah,
the group started from a group of gentlemen that were marching and drum build core, but they were
aged out. They have been out of the core for quite a while. And they still really enjoyed playing.
So we got together and just had a brass group that started here in Western scene and practiced
for a few years. And we're working our way and enjoying pops music, that type of thing. And we
slowly evolved into a brass band, which is built off the British brass band style, which includes
alto horns, baritones, euphoniums, trombones, cornets, not trumpets, E-flat, cornet,
flugal horn, and tubas. And there's a quite a bit of literature in British brass band music.
And that's how we started adopting to the direction that we're going into now.
Don't you know about cornets is in the music 76 trombones. He mentions cornets.
Yes, he has a difference. The difference, well, for the person listening, there's a difference in
sound. The cornet has a more mellow softer sound, really, than a trumpet trumpet is meant to
really signify and get the air going through the sound, going through the wall next to you. I
mean, they can you can play those extreme loud. You can play any brass instrument very loud. But
the cornet has a much more mellow tone. And it is conical instead of cylindrical. I think that was it.
We're working my brain here this morning, guys. Okay. But yeah, this is fun. Yeah, it is. It's
fun watching these small synapses. It's smoking folks. So yeah.
Song from the Scottish Highlands Sunday, this Sunday, March, this Sunday, no, no, next Sunday,
next Sunday. Okay, Sunday, March 22, 22nd, at 3 p.m. at the Holy Communion Lutheran Church. That's
right there on 6,000, 2000 block of 6th, 3rd year in Racine. And features a great list of
Scottish songs and Doug Johnson conductor and watch on the French horn. You're going to see Katie
Humphrey there. And we have some other really fabulous. Oh, yeah. What's your fan too? Yeah,
I really want to mention, I mentioned these other people, Deb Floyd, Merton's, Mike Pollock,
our plane. He's a baritone player that we've got. I also have. And they're playing a duet.
duet. Yeah. And Diane Johnson, my wife Eric and Mike are also doing a trio. We have Eric
Merton's who is our principal euphonium player. And he has got a fantastic solo that he's playing.
And then from Horlick High School, we've got the band director there, Mr. Jacob Myers,
who's playing an E-flat cornets solo, a really small cornet. And that is fantastic. So
this is just going to be a great concert. It is. Yep. It is going to be a great concert. Thank
you guys for coming in. Thanks for having us, Don. You're a great supporter. We appreciate it.
You're always, you're always welcome. And the Racine concert band kicks off on July 5th,
right? Somewhere around there. Somewhere around there. Yeah. It's always around July 4th,
somewhere around here. Yeah, we're going to be playing on Monument Square. I believe
for that first concert. I heard that should be good. We're moving on to St.
Hill snow. That should be real at least in July. I'm playing the St. Patrick's Day
Parade on Saturday with the Pops. That'll be fun in the snow.
Can I have some pops? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you guys.
