“The purpose of the band is to promote community service through providing free concerts,” president of Cupertino Symphonic Band Belinda Trense said. “[We] promote music for people that [haven’t] picked up instruments in 30 years, and [now] they can come back and learn more.”

The Cupertino Symphonic Band, a nonprofit organization, performs three formal free concerts yearly: a veterans‘ concert, a Christmas concert and a spring concert. Along with these concerts, the group is invited to perform in additional concerts, such as the Stanford Car Show, Morgan Hill Fourth of July parade and the band festival in San Francisco. The band’s upcoming Veterans‘ concert is on Nov. 7 starting at 3 p.m. at the Cupertino Quinlan Center.

“There’s a lot of really wonderful patriotic music, and we wanted to honor the veterans. So, we put on a Veterans‘ concert every year,” clarinet player Denise Erksine said.

This year, the concert is dedicated to Ted Brown, a U.S. Navy officer/soldier from 1937 to 1960, who passed away on Memorial Day, a week before his 90th birthday.
“[Brown] was the most cheerful person in the world,” trombone player Fred Wahl said. “He would always get up in the morning, singing ‘Oh what a wonderful morning’ to cheer himself up and put himself in the right frame of mind.”

He held many occupations along with playing in the Cupertino Symphonic Band such as being a teacher at Cupertino High School.

“[Brown] was never a negative person. I mean never. And that’s why it made him such a great teacher. And he was nice to everyone no matter what,” horn player and long-time friend Jeanne Davies said. “I remember for the annual Veterans‘ concert, he used to dress up in his naval uniform and come to the performance. [He was] a really sweet person.”

Since the musicians are performing in remembrance for their long time colleague and friend, Ted Brown, this makes the upcoming Veterans‘ concert specially inspiring.