Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 12, 1993                   TAG: 9312130304
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

COMMUNITY BAND GROWS IN POPULARITY

The band is more popular than ever. Its Christmas concert at George Wythe last week drew about 800 listeners to the George Wythe auditorium.

After leaving Wytheville, White spent 25 years as director of bands at Elon College. He retired in 1989.

He came back to the community where he had spent three years as a high school band director. Those years had been some of the most successful in the history of the school's band, based on its award and the national arenas where it was invited to play.

White found former members of that band from three decades ago still living in the area, and recruited them as the basis for a new community band.

That band has now expanded to more than 80 members, adults from all walks of life who still kept their enthusiasm for music over the years and proved they could still handle it well.

The band gives annual fall and spring concerts at George Wythe, where its members practice once a week, as well as programs in Galax, Marion, Independence and Rocky Gap. It performs annually at the summer Wytheville Chautauqua Festival, usually drawing the biggest crowd for any one event during the weeklong festival, and at the Wytheville Community College graduation each year.

White is now an adjunct professor of music at Wytheville Community College. The college's Educational Foundation and Cultural Affairs Committee provide financial support for the band.

Its next performance will be a spring concert on a date to be announced. New members will be accepted at the start of spring rehearsals Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. in the George Wythe High School band room.