Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

Many kids and adults know the story of BABAR, The Little Elephant, but the Heart of Texas Concert Band, will present its version Sunday, performed by a narrator and an 80-member band.

Still not well known in San Antonio, the HTxCB was founded in 2009 by conductor Mark Rogers and his wife Sudie and has since performed 140 concerts in 30 different venues in San Antonio and the surrounding communities. A concert band is a music ensemble of wind and percussion instruments, without – or very few – string instruments.

“I have been involved with community bands since I was in high school, “said Rogers. “I grew up in the Lubbock area and I was a participant in the Lubbock Municipal Band while in high school. And then, during my years as a college student at Texas Tech, I became even more involved, first as the music librarian, providing sheet music and organizing all that for each week’s concert. Then, as I became more skilled as a conductor, I became the conductor of the band. I was also involved with the Lubbock Municipal Band going back to the 1970s.

Though some concert bands existed in San Antonio, Rogers wanted to start his own “to fulfill my vision of what an all-volunteer community band could bring to the community.”

He programs music that the musicians want to play. “They are volunteers and can vote with their feet if they don’t like the music I choose,” he noted. “They can take their talents elsewhere.” Audience preferences also impact his choices as well as his own need to grow as a musician.

The upcoming Children’s Concert 2024 looks promising in terms of audience satisfaction. The centerpiece of the event is “The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant,” based on the well- known tale written by Frenchman Jean de Brunhoff and first published in 1931. It’s the story of a little elephant whose mother was killed by hunters.  Scared and alone he ran away, ending up in a town. There he was befriended by a kind old lady who treated him well and taught him all sorts of things. But he missed his cousins, who eventually found him, and they all returned to the forest where Babar became the King of the Elephants.

This simple, charming story was set to music by no other than French composer Francis Poulenc, and there’s a story about that, too. While Poulenc was visiting relatives in Bordeaux during World War II, his four-year-old niece did not like what he was playing on the piano. According to reports, she literally lifted his hands off the keyboard and ordered him to play “this.” “This” was the Babar book. Poulenc improvised on the piano as he read the story and became a hero to all the neighborhood kids. He included all their names in the dedication to the work inspired by that occasion.

At the Sunday concert the “Babar” story will be performed by a narrator and the band, which will interpret the narration through music interludes. The other pieces on the program were chosen “to frame “Babar” accordingly,” said Rogers.

The concert will open with the Star-Spangled Banner version arranged by John Philip Sousa, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, as all Heart of Texas Band’s concerts begin. A piece called “The Band that Jack Built is an amusing way to introduce different instrumental sections. There’s also something called “The House That Jack Built,” which is described as an old English poem with audience participation, and other pieces. 

The concert will conclude with “Deep in the Heart of Texas” that will be conducted by R. Bardley Rogers as special guest conductor.

The Heart of Texas Concert Band does not have a regular concert venue but performs all over the city in a range of venues, from the Lila Cockrell Theater to high-school auditoriums. The band is part of Alamo City Arts, which also includes the Symphony VIVA Orchestra, the Alamo City Dance Company and Memory Lane Dance Band.

“Our group is very much a labor of love between me and my wife,” said Rogers, “and we didn’t see how someone else would put a program in place to replace me should that be necessary. You need to have some umbrella organization that will help that transition. We have several musicians who also play with Symphony VIVA and I would hear from them about how well-managed Symphony VIVA was as part of Alamo City Arts. Interestingly, about that same time we were performing a piece called “Fiesta Mexicana” featuring folk songs, and I thought the performance would be enhanced if we had dancers in the show. We asked Alamo City Arts for help, which we got. Interestingly, Alamo City Arts was considering reaching out to us at the same time when we were reaching out to them. We are basically independent, but where they can help is with technical expertise in audio/visual equipment and they can help us live-stream our events, for instance. That was really important during the COVID shutdown. But live-streaming is appreciated by many of our followers even now.”
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The Heart of Texas Concert Band: Children’s Concert 2024; Sunday, Feb. 4 at 3 p.m.; Trinity Baptist Church,
319 E. Mulberry, 78212; suggested donation $10