The Iola Municipal Band, which has been a part of Iola’s summers for the past 152 years, ended its summer session Thursday with a celebration of Christmas.
The band, with musicians ranging from middle school to players in their 80s, performed a medley of holiday classics to bid adieu to 2023.
Among the audience members was Chris Frank, a senior producer for PBS Kansas, based in Wichita.
Frank was in town to record footage for a documentary about the band, slated to air sometime this fall, for PBS’s “Positively Kansas” series.
Prior to the concert, Frank visited with a number of the band’s key performers, including John Lucas, who has played in the weekly Thursday evening concerts each summer for the past 50 years, Andy Dunlap, 82, who joined the band while he was in high school, and Jenna Morris, who has directed the group for the past two summers.
Frank said he had read about the Iola band in a book about Kansas attractions.
“This is such an interesting story,” Frank said, as he interviewed locals about the band.
JOHN SHEEHAN, who along with playing with the band, also serves as the group’s announcer each week, shared a bit about the group’s history, which actually dates back to 1867.
“From what I understand, it was a place for Civil War soldiers to gather from both sides and be able to reminisce and talk about camaraderie,” Sheehan said.
The group would gather at Iola’s courthouse square to build campfires and play a song or two.
Those occasional gatherings became a regular occurrence in 1871, when the Iola Municipal Band was formed, making it the oldest continuously playing such group in the state, and one of the oldest in the country.
FRANK began his interviews with a simple question: What accounts for the band’s longevity?
“For one thing, we play beautiful music,” Dunlap responded. “It means an awful lot to me. I’ve had three sons in the band at one time or another. We’ve made a lot of noise.”
Lucas, who started playing with the group while a high-schooler, noted he has relatives who have been a part of the band dating back to the early 1900s.
“It’s one of the highlights of the summer to me,” Lucas said. “It’s one of the things I always look forward to. We’ve had some outstanding musicians here over the years, when I think about who’s come and gone.
