By Andrew Hackmack
Since its inception, the band has had five lead conductors, hundreds of performers and played before thousands of people. Kohlmann remembers the origins of the musical group quite well. It formed in September of 1952 and the first rehearsal was held at Central High School. The following June the band held its first public performance on the high school grounds.
"They were always outside concerts," Kohlmann said. "We set up right outside the auditorium."
Back then, the fire department would come and set up lights to illuminate the concert. The audience would sit on the bleachers, but over time people began to bring their own folding chairs, Kohlmann said.
John M. Smith organized the efforts to start the band and would be the conductor through 1969. Kohlmann said the Smith hailed from Pennsylvania, where the community band was a popular concept.
Smith was director of music for the high school district and recruited many students from the school band. Kohlmann was one of them.
After the band shell opened up in 1956 at the village green, concerts shifted to that location. At the close of the 1969 concert season, the band shell was named in honor of retiring conductor Smith. Kohlmann wrote a song for the dedication, composing both the music and the lyrics.
"One of those things when you sit around with the guitar and have nothing to do," Kohlmann said, adding that he had never written a piece of music before that song, or one since then.
Now, the band closes every concert with that song.
"It was just one of those things that caught on," Kohlmann explained.
A long line of high school district music faculty has succeeded Smith in leading the Valley Stream Community Band. Immediately after him came Arthur Fare, who conducted the group up until his death in 1973. Jack Emig led the band until 1981, Robert Pratt until 1985 and Lawrence Wait until 1989.
The band's current conductor is Dean Karahalis, who has only recently retired from his teaching post. When he first assumed the district's director of music position in 1989, Karahalis decided to hire a qualified member of the community band to serve as the conductor. Karahalis decided he would still guest conduct three concerts per season, but the lead responsibility went to French horn player and Lynbrook High School Band Director Bill Reilly.
For the 1989 and 1990 season, Reilly conducted five of the eighth concerts with Karahalis conducting the other three. But at the urging of the community and district administration, Karahalis took over as the band's leader full-time the following year.
Kohlmann said that the conductor chooses the songs that are performed each week. Every band leader has also brought their own style, as evidenced by the changes made of the years.
In the early years, the community was invited to come up and sing along with the band during intermission. After that, the organist would play during the break but now his solo performance is featured before the show. At one point, intermission was broken up into interludes, featuring a Dixieland Band, vocalists or various instrumental groups. Under the leadership of Karahalis, intermission is a chance to give everyone a rest period. Near the end of the concerts, children are invited to come up to the front of the stage and direct the band in a patriotic tune with American flags.
In 55 years, the weekly summer concerts have never stopped being a hit. They are popular with not only village residents, Kohlmann explained, but also with those from neighboring communities.
"From the very beginning the crowds have always been very big," he said.
The publicity has also always helped. In the early days of the band, a friend of Kohlmann's family was Bill Eckenberg, chief photographer of the New York Times. Kohlmann said that Eckenberg would come down the concerts almost every week and print pictures of the band in action.
Over the years other local newspapers have also taken to the band, Kohlmann noted, publishing photos on a regular basis and recording all major milestone in its history.
Kohlmann said the success of the Valley Stream Community Band is a tribute to the excellent coordination between the village and the high school district. Each summer members of the community highly anticipate the eight concerts at the village green.
"It's a family-oriented thing," Kohlmann said. "We do things that hopefully have appeal to all ages."
