[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 160 (Thursday, September 27, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1323]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE YALE UNIVERSITY BANDS ON ITS CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY

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                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 27, 2018

  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, It gives me great pleasure to rise today to 
extend my sincere congratulations to the Yale University Bands--the 
first American University Band to present a concert tour abroad in 
1959--as it celebrates its centennial anniversary.
  The activities that led to the birth of the Yale University Band were 
organized by Joseph R. Ellis in 1918 when he was a lieutenant in the 
United States Army assigned to the Yale Student Army Training Corps. 
Prior to being stationed in New Haven, he had been posted in 
Washington, D.C. where his work was to secure players and leaders for 
bands throughout the training camps of the country. Upon his arrival at 
Yale, he started planning the formation of a band. Finding no funds 
available, Lieutenant Ellis took up a collection from the military 
units which were then in training. He secured the services of a 
professional coach, Charles F. Smith, a New Haven musician who had 
considerable band experience, a few instruments were purchased, and 
musical talent was recruited from the S.A.T.C. (Student Army Training 
Corps). This first Yale band provided music for military formations 
until the Corps was demobilized in December 1918, after the Armistice. 
The instruments were turned over to the University with the hope that 
they would provide the nucleus for a student band in the future.
  Lieutenant Ellis remained at Yale and went on to become Registrar of 
Freshmen. On October 1, 1919, he and Charles Smith succeeded in 
persuading twenty students to form the Yale Band which played at some 
of the minor football games that fall. It was from those twenty 
students a century ago that the Yale Bands have expanded to include the 
Yale Jazz Ensemble, the Yale Precision Marching Band, and the Yale 
Concert Band--producing a combined thirty national and international 
concert tours.
  In its one hundred years, the Yale Bands has been served by just six 
directors: Charles Smith, Alvin Etler, Keith L. Wilson, Keith Brion, 
Richard Thurston, and today's director, Thomas C. Duffy who has held 
the position for thirty-seven years.
  The Yale Bands have amassed an impressive record of musical 
commissions, world premieres, and service to civic, academic and 
national events, all combined with a commitment to music as a social 
force. Yale Bands have produced benefit concerts to raise relief money 
in response to natural disasters, have performed in a Syrian refugee 
camp in Athens, Greece, and regularly directs the talents of its 
members in performances that support philanthropic, educational, and 
social programs.
  For its formative place in the development of the 20th-century 
American Wind Band, for its pioneering work with the commissioning of 
new band works from important composers, for its long-standing 
commitment to music as a social force and its impact on the local New 
Haven community and those around the world, I am proud to stand today 
to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the Yale University Bands as 
it celebrates its 100th anniversary. I wish them all the best for 
another century of fine performances, artistic leadership, and service 
through music.

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