About Our Band

About our Band Directors

Flying Bricks Director:

Others:

The Flying Bricks Community Band, as an all-volunteer organization, could not survive without the contribution of time and knowledge from the various directors that work with the band. While many are band directors from area schools, we are able to draw from all the talented musicians that the band has to offer. All of our directors have a willingness to share their love of music with players in the community.

Short bios on all of our recent and current band directors can be found by following the links below.

James Boyett

Matt Fields

Kory Jones

Brandon Reburn

Haleigh Willingham

In Memory of Director Emeritus, James Gunn

Mr. Gunn will be missed by all of us in the Flying Bricks Community Band. He continued to touch lives and bring music to a community that will be forever

grateful for his service. Mr. Gunn came out of retirement to conduct the Flying Bricks Community Band into existence from 2009-2012. We hope this contribution will be the foundation for a lasting legacy of bands in Thomasville; we owe a great deal of gratitude to him for teaching the school bands of 'yesterday' and giving a platform to those who continue to perform today.

Reprint of his obituary follows (original here)

James G. "Jimmy" Gunn, age 76, of Thomasville, Alabama passed away peacefully on Friday, September 5, 2014 at his home. He was born on April 15, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Alabama on a full scholarship and received both his bachelor's and master's degree from there. One of his most fond memories of college was performing in the Million Dollar Band. Through the years he continued to perform with various groups. He served as principal oboist with the Mobile Symphony and Gulf Coast Symphony and played with the Mobile Pops as well as being an orchestra member of the Mobile Opera and Mobile Ballet. He was the Band Director at Thomasville High School for 19 years where he developed an award winning concert band. He not only taught students music, he taught them lessons on life. Proud of his Scottish Heritage, he served as President of the Clan Gunn Society of North America, the Scottish Society of Mobile where he served as President for 2 terms as well as being the Delta Commissioner for Clan Gunn for 20 years. Attending several Scottish Games through the years, he won the "bonniest knees" contest a few times and had award winning shortbread. In 2010, Jimmy was honored to be the founding conductor of the "Flying Bricks" Community Band. He took great joy in that and continued as the conductor until 2012. In 2011, he was named Thomasville's Senior Citizen of the Year. He was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church. He was preceded in death by his parents, James and Frieda Gunn and sister, Emma Durkin. He is survived by his loving wife of 51 years, Mary Niles Gunn of Thomasville, AL; three children, Jay (Vicky) Gunn of Summerdale, AL, daughter, Meg (Tim) Raley of Thomasville, AL and Ryan (Teresa) Gunn of Mobile, AL; nine grandchildren, Kelley, Grady and Mary Katherine Gunn all of Summerdale, AL; Chandler and Laura Beth Caldwell of Birmingham, AL; Alexis, Taylor and Olivia Gunn of Sweetwater, AL and Zachary Johnson of Birmingham, AL; niece, Darlene Durkin of Philadelphia, PA; his constant companions, Chip and Annabelle; very special friends, Pearl and Will Slay, Emma Lanier and the caring members of Trinity Episcopal Church. The family will receive friends on Saturday, September 13, 2014 at 10:00a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church in Demopolis with a memorial service beginning at 11:00a.m. with Reverend J. D. Barnes officiating. Memorials may be made to St. Jude, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105. "Patient, gentle, devoted and self-sacrificing with never a thought of himself alone. Fairest among thousands, altogether lovely. His song is ended but the melody lingers on." To leave an online condolence for the family please visit www.lathanfuneralhomejackson.com.

Flying Bricks History

The Arts Council of Thomasville has, for more than ten years, presented a musical each summer. Over this period, the instrumental musicians grew from just a keyboard player to a small "orchestra of eight to ten" members. During the production of "Big River" in the summer of 2009, the Arts Council realized that it had enough musicians to form a band. Public meetings began in early 2010 and the first rehearsal was held in April of 2010. Within the first month the membership had grown from nine to more than twenty. The band’s first public performance was a concert presented for Independence day of that year with 31 musicians participating. Since then, the group has given concerts each year for every Independence Day, Christmas Season and an annual Spring performance. The spring concert of 2011 featured guest bagpiper, USAF Pipe Major, Scott Gunn. In April 2012 the Flying Bricks hosted an honor band for area high school musicians--a tradition that continues today.

The band's membership range in age from high school students to Social Security recipients and in musical abilities from the "come back player" who is playing again after decades of not doing so, to several band directors and church musicians. Members are drawn from the surrounding area with some traveling more than 50 miles each week to attend rehearsals. All of them share a love of music and enjoy the opportunity to perform again in a traditional concert band.

Several years ago, the idea of a town band was just a dream of several civic-minded citizens of Thomasville, but to the delight of the community, the Flying Bricks have turned out to be a fine concert band, indeed.

Arts Council of Thomasville

The Arts Council of Thomasville is a ten-member board, whose members are appointed by the Thomasville City Council. The board, which was established more than ten years ago, promotes visual and performing arts activities for Thomasville and the surrounding communities. In addition to the Flying Bricks Community Band, the Council sponsors:

  1. The Rambling Rose Players, whose members present dramatic and musical performance throughout the year.
  2. The Dickens Carolers, a group of singers who perform old English Christmas Carols from the Victorian era.
  3. Arts classes, including painting and pottery.
  4. The "Ghost Walk", which was inspired by the stories of Thomasville native, Kathryn Tucker Windham. Held in October each year, the Ghost Walk uses local story tellers to present stories of the area's history.