A handshake and a signed contract between a pair of veteran band directors — dating back 25 years — led to the Wheaton Municipal Band being featured this Friday during a segment on the CBS Evening News at 5:30 p.m. The story will be part of the “On the Road with Steve Hartman” series, which typically airs near the end of the broadcast.
Retired Col. Arnald Gabriel, left, with Wheaton Conductor Bruce Moss in 1992
In his award-winning series, Hartman is described by CBS officials as “bringing viewers moving stories from the unique people he encounters and the special places he visits as he travels around the country.”
Consider this encounter unique. The story will feature 100-year-old retired Col. Arnald Gabriel, former conductor of the U.S. Air Force Band, directing the Wheaton Municipal Band, remotely, from his home in Washington DC. The rare concert took place July 26.
“He first came to Wheaton as my guest to share the podium in 1992,” says Bruce Moss, now in his 46th year of conducting the Wheaton Municipal Band. “Soon after that I joked with him that he would be conducting when he’s 100, and I sent him a contract to do so with us about 25 years ago.”
Gabriel was one of the most widely travelled military conductors and known all over the world in his prime with the U.S. Air Force Band, Moss says. While Gabriel can no longer travel, he still loves to talk about his times conducting the Wheaton Band and he eagerly agreed to honor his contract.
“I’ve always considered (the band) to be more than a community band, but a really professional band,” Gabriel said in a filmed interview with Moss. “They play with a really professional pizzazz and I appreciate that very much.”
Moss found a production company that does video work for the U.S. Army Field Band to help facilitate Gabriel directing the band remotely. They sent a crew to Gabriel’s house in Washington to film him conducting two patriotic tunes “Stars and Stripes Forever” and “America, the Beautiful.” The company recorded Gabriel conducting to some of his prior recordings of these patriotic classics.
Video interview of Moss, right, interviewing Gabriel during the concert
The production team then took out the sound, came to Edman Chapel at Wheaton College and set up monitors for the band and audience to see. When it came time in the program for these dramatic pieces, the band was actually playing to his conducting, Moss says.
Between the film crew and working with the crew from CBS News, the celebration was a huge undertaking, but well worth it. Moss specifically credits the Friends of the Wheaton Municipal Band, with helping to fund the film crew and enabling the dramatic reunion to happen.
“It was an adventure,” Moss says. “The audience was taken by it as they didn’t really know what was coming. The band didn’t really know the scope of it until they got into rehearsal the afternoon of the concert. The response was vociferous.”
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