Lambton Concert Band

According to the Petrolia Topic of December 27, 2000, ninety invitations were sent out to area musicians inviting them to join a Petrolia concert band. Norm Sutherland, former executive member for the Petrolia Concert Band, was the energetic force to get this going. A public meeting was held on January 11, 2001, and Chris Coyle and Dave Parkes, both accomplished trumpet players and teachers at LCCVI (Lambton Central Collegiate and Vocational Institute, the Petrolia high school) at the time, volunteered to conduct the newly formed band. The band rehearsed at the Petrolia high school. Art Christmas agreed to donate music that was formerly used by the Bluewater Symphonic Band. This was an exciting development in Lambton county, since a full concert band comparable to the Bluewater Symphonic Band or the Petrolia Concert Band had not existed in the county for at least ten years.

Chris Coyle and Dave Parkes grew up in Lambton County and played in area concert bands. They were conscious of the typical framework for a band, where a band rose or fell with its conductor. So they decided that this band would have an executive. The executive would run the band and choose its conductor. That way conductors could come and go and hopefully the band would continue to thrive.

The band's uniform was two-tone green golf shirts and black pants. Their first concert was at the Victoria Hall in Petrolia. Seventy four people were in the band then, with about half of them high school students. Since the high school teachers were on work-to-rule, closing down before and after school music programs, the Lambton Concert Band was a great "plan B" musical outlet for high school band students. Tom Walter, percussionist in the band for that first performance, says the stage was so crowded that he was half hidden by the backdrops in the back of the stage. With the band normally having two to three percussionists, Tom says there were five at that performance. As for the uniform, the green shirts never caught on with some band members, so wearing black became the default "uniform".

Howard Cable (see https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/howard-cable-emc for a full biography) was invited to direct at the February 21, 2002, concert. Cable worked in radio and television and happened to become acquainted with Kim Gilmore, a tuba player with the Lambton Concert Band. She invited him to come to Sarnia to conduct the band (see The Observer, Febrary 16, 2002). The concert featured a number of Cable's arrangements and compositions, such as O Canada, Ontario Pictures, Hockey Night in Canada Theme (a piece he arranged for band in 2001), Highlights from the Sound of Music, and Scottish Rhapsody. He returned a year later, in February, 2003, to direct another concert, when the band played a number of his compositions and arrangements. They included O Canada, Train Ride, McIntyre Ranch, Brazilian Festival, I Dreamed a Dream, and Cape Breton Moments.

In 2005, Dave Parkes moved from the Petrolia high school to teach music at Northern Collegiate and Vocation School in Sarnia, and Chris Coyle moved on to explore other educational jobs. The Lambton Concert Band moved with Dave to Northern, and Blake Stevenson, long-time music teacher at Northern and accomplished clarinet player, joined him in conducting the band.

Their March 9, 2006, concert featured more Howard Cable pieces, including an original composition commissioned by Charles Fairbanks of Petrolia. This piece, Hard Oil Suite, was made up of three sections -- the drillers, the jerker lines, and the gusher. Cable spent time in Petrolia and Oil Springs listening to the sounds and then incorporated those into this piece. The instruments needed to play the piece included three steel pipes especially fabricated by Albert Baines, to be struck by a ball peen hammer.

Dave Parkes and Blake Stevenson retired from conducting the Lambton Concert Band in 2012. For the October 25, 2012, concert, Tessa Catton teamed up with Geoff Gander to direct the band. Tessa (an accomplished flute player) had been a music teacher at SCITS, while Geoff (a talented trombone player) was a music teacher at St. Pat's high school in Sarnia. They continued sharing the position until the April 4 concert in 2013, when Tessa took over.

Other guest conductors of the band have included Henry Meredith (former professor of music at the University of Western Ontario), Jeff Christmas (son of Art Christmas, professor at the University of Western Ontario, and an accomplished composer and musician), Sara Joy (music teacher and conductor, Sarnia), and Charles Dalmas (clarinetist with the International Symphony).

Since the band directors were teachers at Lambton county schools, the band has always rehearsed at various local high schools (this also takes advantage of Lambton-Kent's generous program "Community Use of Schools").

This year 2020 marks its 20th anniversary!