Band concert made for a pleasant family outing

Parents, grandparents and siblings made up much of the audience for Sunday's concert by the Capital City Community Band at the Carson City Community Center.

They came to see their family members singing in the Bordewich-Bray Elementary School Honor Choir, which joined the band for pieces called "The Magic of Disney" and "The Musicians."

The Cliburn family showed up in full force to watch fourth grader Angelina Cliburn add her voice to the choir. There were her parents, Steve and Barbara Cliburn, brothers Steven and Marc, infant sister Stephanie and grandparents Guy and Martha Dodd.

"We love it," said Steve Cliburn, who said he's a distant cousin of legendary pianist Van Cliburn.

Guy Dodd had the look of someone just as comfortable at a band concert as at a gun show, which occupied the community center's gym at the same time the concert filled the theater.

"That was a hard choice, the concert's next to a gun show," Dodd said. "Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't (go to the gun shows)." I like listening to people sing. I like to see Angelina sing."

Like mother like daughter, Angelina Cliburn may have inherited her choral singing from mom, who sang in a girls choir while growing up in Rock Island, Ill.

"It's very good for them to be in choir," Barbara Cliburn said. "Music is good for the soul, that kind of thing."

Bill and Shari Ravenelle had a similar view. They brought along his daughters, Amanda, 13, Gracie, 11, and Charlotte, 9.

"Music's been great for them," Bill Ravenelle said. "It's increasing their grade point average. It holds true what they say about music."

Shari Ravenelle had a more practical theory.

"They get extra credit from their music class," she said.

Ken Kirschmann was armed with camera to capture images of his daughter in fourth grade, Devon, who joined the choir this year. Wife Aggie and daughter Chelsey also came along to hear what Devon's voice sounds like as part of a choir.

"Some times she'll practice while we're doing our homework," said Chelsey Kirschmann, a sixth grader at Carson Middle School.

John and Donna Ruby play the clarinet and flute, respectively, in the band. Does this lead to any rivalries?

"We play duets together sometimes," said John Ruby, a pastor at the United Methodist Church in Reno. "That's how we met 25 years ago."

John Ruby spent some preconcert moments in audience with his "little friend," Genevieve Berges, who came from Reno with her grandma, Sue Berges.

"I enjoy music," Sue Berges said. "When (John Ruby) said there was a children's concert, I wanted to bring my granddaughter to enjoy it."

The Capital City Community Band has been performing since 1978 and Shawn Pigman has had family members playing with the band for much of that time. Now, his wife Donna Pigman plays the tenor sax, and Shawn with granddaughter Yesinia Pigman take in the concert from the front row.

"My daughters played in this band," Shawn Pigman said. "Mr. Doede has taught them when they were 15. One daughter's 25 now."

He also foresees a musical future for Yesinia, who is six and a first grader at Fritsch Elementary School.

"She'll probably play the flute because her aunt plays the flute," Pigman said.