Yesterday was Mrs. Pappas' last concert before retirement.



About one thousand people flocked to the Oswego High School gym yesterday afternoon for her last concert. 90 people aged 19 to 70-ish played in the OHS alumni band. The concert featured the current Wind Symphony and the alumni band in a concert that lasted three and a half hours.



Margene Pappas spend about thirty or so years as a band director in the Oswego school district. She started out teaching fifth grade band (before a failed referendum did in the fifth grade band program), then moved up to the junior highs, and she has been the director of bands at Oswego High school for about the past dozen years.



She's a fantastic conductor, and she is extremely well-respected. She was the first woman ever to serve on the board of the National Band Association, which I think is pretty cool. And while she is certainly not perfect, she has a remarkable ability to admit her mistakes and to learn from them, which may be preferable to perfection.



So I am wishing a long and happy retirement to the woman who inspired me to become a band director. Not that she's reading this. Because she's probably too old to know what a blog is.

posted at 9:41 PM by Alison

|