Gogebic Range Concert Band to remember COVID-19 victims

IRONWOOD - The Gogebic Range Concert Band will perform at 7 p.m. on Aug. 10 in Longyear Park in Ironwood. The concert will be dedicated to all those who the community has lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, band director Marie Eggleston said.

"We'll be playing 'Amazing Grace' and 'Be Still My Soul' to call attention to the fact that just about everybody has lost someone or knows someone who has lost someone." Eggleston said. "There hasn't been any memorial because it's an ongoing pandemic. So, we thought we could do that much; a dedication to those people."

Eggleston said that she hopes the concert will provide some catharsis for people who are still mourning the loss of loved ones due to the spread of the coronavirus.

The band was unable to perform in 2020 because of the pandemic. According to the band director, this was the first season that the band did not perform since the organization was founded in 1979.

The band started their weekly rehearsals again in May and they have learned several new songs, including "Eighth Street Blues," Eggleston said. They previously performed this season on July 3, 4 and 17.

The ensemble has expanded to 27 members since the 2019 season. The members come from Saxon, Wisconsin, through Wakefield. Eggleston said that the band is a multigenerational group of musicians, with some families integrated into the larger unit.

"We have people from high school all the way up to people who have been retired for years, so the age span is about 50 years or so," Eggleston said. "A grandfather and a granddaughter - Rod Ritter and his granddaughter Melissa - are in the band. Rod plays tenor saxophone and Melissa plays alto saxophone."

The group will perform in the band shell in Longyear Park, which was freshly renovated by members of former director Betty Paugh's family on June 24 to 26.

The band will accept financial contributions, which will be given to the Gogebic Range Health Foundation.