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thedrifter
01-15-08, 07:38 AM
Musical Marine

By Harold Reutter
harold.reutter@theindependent.com

Warrant Officer Stephen Giove may be a tough Marine, but he's also a nice guy.

That's the conclusion of several of the students who participated in Monday's All-City High School Honor Band, which brings together musicians from the three largest band programs in the community.

Giove's work as a director is the second time this school year that he has been in Grand Island to work with students.

He first worked with Senior High marching band students on the day before the Harvest of Harmony Parade.

Giove was not the only U.S. Marine in Grand Island that day. Members of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Band in 29 Palms, Calif., also were at Senior High.

Senior High freshman tuba player Andrew Spencer recalled that Giove first worked with students in the band room, rehearsing their field music. He said members of the Marine band played right along with the student musicians while Giove directed.

Spencer said Giove and his fellow Marines then took to Senior High's football field to watch the Islander band perform.

The Marines marched and performed their own field routine, but much of the time was spent having Marine band members work with individual sections of the Senior High band: Marine trumpet players with Senior High trumpet players, Marine percussionists with Senior High percussionists and so on.

Impressed with what he saw, Senior High band director Jim Kordik said he asked Giove if he would be willing to come back to Grand Island in January to work with the All-City Band.

"He said he would if he could get things worked out," Kordik said.

Giove worked as a guest clinician last week, directing the Florida All-State Band. That allowed him to stop in Grand Island on the return trip to 29 Palms, Calif., to be the conductor for the All-City Honor Band.

Giove said he was more than willing to come back to Grand Island after seeing "the love the students have for music. They want to learn more. They're willing to do what's needed to get better."

That's good because the All-City Band was working on challenging music.

Early Monday afternoon, band members were working their way through "Festivo." It was a piece that required students to play the "spaces" or "rests" with just as much intensity as the musical notes.

"Festivo" did not have just a traditional melody and harmony. Instead, the melody might be carried for a few bars by trumpets before switching over to the trombones. Then, the melody might be picked up by the saxophones or clarinets.

As different sections carried the melody, other sections of the band might contribute just one or two or three notes as accents.

Anyone who miscounted the rests would come in too soon, too late or not at all. During a couple of moments, that is exactly what happened.

Giove stopped the band, turned around to face the empty seats and pretended to address Monday night's audience, explaining how he was continuing to wave his baton while there was no music because some musicians had failed to come in on cue.

Giove, a longtime percussionist, admitted the same thing had once happened to him. He was playing cymbals with a musical group. His sole responsibility was to crash the symbols at the right dramatic moment in the piece.

He said the director was not pleased with him.

The director fired his baton at him, sending the object flying at him over the top of the heads of his fellow musicians. The conductor also yelled at him, "You're fired!"

Giove, though, showed no similar displays of temper while working with the students.

At one point, he implored section leaders to "help your fellow man count."

During a break, Central Catholic freshman Sarah Golka and Northwest junior Josh Huls acknowledged that they were attempting to play music that was more challenging than what they normally try to play as part of their band classes at school.

Golka said she enjoyed the experience of being in an honor band, and she also enjoyed Giove's direction.

The chance to work under a guest conductor is one of the reasons to participate in an honor group.

"I like him," Golka said. "I think he's cool."

She said Giove has a "good personality" to help the musicians work their way through the tough sections of music they are being asked to perform.

Huls also mentioned Giove's personality: "He has a nice way of telling us when we do something wrong."

Asked if the band would do well on its difficult music during Monday night's concert, Huls exuded confidence, saying, "Oh, yes."

Ellie