concert preview

Concert by Michigan Band Alumni Association reminds Brighton couple of 'love at first speed bump'

By Roger LeLievre AnnArbor.com Freelance Journalist

Posted on Sun, May 27, 2012 : 5:07 a.m.

Joe Gregoria and Diana Burnett

Diana Burnett and Joe Gregoria have the Michigan Marching Band to thank for a love affair that began more than 25 years ago.

Burnett (clarinet) and Gregoria (trumpet) met in the summer of 1985, cooped up 8 people to a 2-door 1977 sedan, shuttling from North Campus to Revelli Hall, which is where the Michigan Marching Band rehearsed before football season. "Diana sat on my lap. It was love at first speed bump. I had to get to know this exotic foreigner from New Jersey,” Gregoria recalled. “Diana fills the gaps in my soul.”

The couple, who now live in Brighton, will be part of the ensemble Sunday, June 3, when the 60-member University of Michigan Band Alumni Association Concert Band performs a free show at Huron High School.

The program includes works by Shostakovich, R. Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives, Richard Rodgers, Julius Fucick, Travis J. Cross and Frank Ticheli. It ends, appropriately, with Louis Elbel’s “The Victors March.”

PREVIEW

University of Michigan Band Alumni Association Concert

Who: Past U-M band members. Patricia Cornett, doctoral candidate from the U-M School of Music, will conduct.
What: Works by Shostakovich, R. Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives, Richard Rodgers, Julius Fucick, Travis J. Cross, Frank Ticheli and Louis Elbel.
Where: Huron High School, 2727 Fuller Road.
When: 3 p.m. Sunday, June 3.
How much: Free. Info: www.umbaa.org.

“We recognized each other as soul mates and got to know one another during the commutes on the band bus that rode that route, in addition to staying up late studying and talking in the dorm,” Burnett agreed.

The two never dated in college, but spent lots of time getting to know each other. After college they were married. They joined the UMBAA in 1989, the first year they were eligible.

Any individual who has been a student member of any of the University of Michigan Bands and who supports the purposes and goals of the University of Michigan Band Alumni Association can become a member of the UMBAA.

“UMBAA provides a way to continue to play in an atmosphere of camaraderie that has the familiarity of the Michigan Band, yet also has the organization of a concert band,” Burnett said.

Gregoria called the group “a social club with a music problem. “We go to football, softball, basketball, and baseball games under the guise of an alumni band and get to hang out together and watch future alumni do their thing,” he explained.

“(The) UMBAA concert band is the organization's first attempt at ‘sit down’ music, and we're having a blast meeting new alums, hanging out in bars, and sometimes accidentally making music.”

Patricia Cornett, doctoral candidate from the U-M School of Music, will conduct Sunday’s concert.