By Ralph Holibaugh
By accident of birth, I had the great good fortune to have had more wonderful experiences in Alliance than I can count. The late Tommy Sudeck, my friend since childhood, referred frequently to our boyhood years in the 1950s as ‘The Golden Age of Alliance.’ The Alliance City Band was part of many of those experiences and had a huge role in my subsequent development and career choices in music performance, music education, musicology, and music librarianship. In previous blogs I’ve attempted to fill in some of the ‘backstories’ of ACB histories provided by Graydon “Gray” Ellis, Paul Hobe, and others.
Here is one further ACB story, my personal one.
On August 7, 1957, I performed Herbert L. Clarke’s trumpet arrangement of “The Carnival of Venice” with the ACB at the Molly Stark Hospital just outside Alliance. Performing its 20 variations on the old Italian melody was a technical tour de force with each variation highlighting a different aspect of the instrument’s characteristics.
Challenging, indeed, for a 15-year-old trumpeter.
Playing that piece successfully was a turning point in my life and confirmed a lifelong fascination and enthusiasm with the myriad aspects of music.
The years I had studied with Mr. Best using his favorite teaching tool, the thick and systematic Arban’s Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, had prepared me well for the performance. It followed the path already trod by Clyde Hunt, Ralph and Eldon Kropf, and many others. I’ve reflected on that ‘57 performance often and thought about the opportunities and nurturing the ACB represented then and the enrichment it could bring to young musicians.
Gavin Holman, an English cornet player, musicologist, and computer scientist has compiled hundreds of studies from around the world that document the significance of bands in supporting and promoting democratic ideals. With Holman’s work and my personal experience with the Alliance City Band in mind, I offer the following July 4th, 2026 wish:
HAPPY CELEBRATIONS
TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
TO THE ALLIANCE CITY BAND &
TO THE ALLIANCE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Best wishes for future support of AHS, Karen Perone, Michelle Dillon and the AHS staff of volunteers as they preserve, protect, and promote the past material and artistic culture and heritage of Alliance, Ohio as an investment in the future.
[Pictured above: Alliance City Band, 1958. Ralph is pictured in the third row, third from the left, just in front of the sousaphone.]