I have attended the East Texas Symphonic Band concerts for years and enjoyed the varied musical selections immensely. Some of the pieces they play have me tapping my foot, others bring tears to my eyes, and others make my chest swell with pride. And the fact that the concerts are free means anyone and everyone can come and have that same experience.
The East Texas Symphonic Band is a collection of truly gifted musicians that give their time and talents to the community. The band offers 4 concerts a year to the Longview area residence. My favorite is the outdoor Pops concert at Teague Park Amptheater in Spring. This concert is truly a throwback to the community bands that used to dot small communities decades ago. The Band plays a wide assortment of crowd pleasing showtunes (Oklahoma, Tribute to John Williams), serious classical pieces along with a great assortment of the Band's specialty - military marches. If given an opportunity, do not pass on a performance.
East Texas Symphonic Band offers wonderful music for everyone! Dr. Snowden manages to select pieces from varied genres so that any audience will hear something they like. The fact that these accomplished musicians are willing to give the tremendous time commitment to perform with the band and do it as a community service, no less, continues to amaze me. East Texas Symphonic Band truly is an artistic gem in the greater Longview community!
When I moved to Longview Texas 16 years ago, I never thought I would have the opportunity to play my oboe again. Boy was I wrong!! Shortly after moving, I was invited to play with the East Texas Symphonic Band and have been playing off and on (mostly on) with the Band since 1995. This volunteer band provides the perfect setting for adult musicians to keep up their musical talents in a fun and challenging atmosphere. The music is varied - we do play a lot of marches, and those tend not to be my favorites, but we also play lots of symphonies (many transcribed for band by our director Dr. James Snowden) and other wonderful pieces. There is always something for our audience's varied tastes as well. Another wonderful feature of our band is that all of our concerts are FREE - yes I said FREE. I strongly believe that this is a selling point with our band and our audience. We also get to provide these free concerts at the beautiful new S.E Belcher Chapel and Performance Center on the LeTourneau University Campus and the acoustics are amazing. It's also still amazing to me that a small town such as this has the talent that is has. We are truly blessed. And our audience is ever expanding, and we are continually getting interest from local musicians to join our band. I think that says a whole lot about the quality of our organization. I invite everyone in the North East Texas area to come and see just what a gift Longview has in the East Texas Symphonic Band!!