Getting the Marching Band Back Together
Written by Lisa Battles
In popular music, fans go wild when a disbanded group reunites for one more show or tour.
In 1982, that happened on a grand scale with 75 former marching band students in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the show hasn’t stopped.
Since the early 1960s, two St. Pete band directors have nurtured a music community and culture. In 1982, they ensured their legacy would resonate far beyond their school directing days by launching The St. Petersburg Area Awesome Original Second Time Arounders Marching Band, encouraging former band members to dust off their instruments and give them another go.
At its peak, the ‘Rounders grew to over 500 members across several generations. Over the decades, it’s launched countless friendships and even families. This band, its founders and their legacy exemplify the formative power of music beyond measure.
Bill Findeison’s Lifelong Calling
In the early 1980s, Bill Findeison owned a music store in St. Pete, so it seemed natural to connect with the city’s Festival of the States, which by that time had grown into a signature tourism event for the town since its founding in the 1890s. Marching bands from all over the nation converged for the celebration every year.
After 15 years of directing junior and high school bands, Findeison left to run the store, which he did for about four years before feeling the call to direct again. Instead of taking the traditional route of his business sponsoring a float in the festival parade, he had something else up his sleeve – his director’s baton and a novel idea.
He took out ads inviting anyone who’d been in a high school, college or military band to meet up and play one more time in the parade. He was pleased when 75 people showed up.
Of course, he’d needed help with a group so large, and he knew who to call: his longtime friend, former student and mentee, Roger Green, who had ascended to the high school band director position when Findeison retired.
Roger Green’s Unwavering Dedication
Findeison met Green in 1966, the summer before the school year started, which was his first time directing the high school band after three years at the junior high. He was teaching lessons at the local music store, where Green was in a session with another teacher.
Green had just been rezoned to enter his junior year at the new high school, where Findeison would direct. A talented trumpet player who’d been part of great band programs at his previous schools, Green was eager to help his new school band succeed. Recognizing his future band director, Green introduced himself and offered his help with the band, however he could.
When school began, Green kept his word – from setting up music stands before rehearsal to lining the field for the band’s shows, eventually earning the John Philip Sousa Award for being an outstanding student. After high school, Green earned his bachelor’s degree at Stetson University and intended to continue on for a master’s degree.
Around that time, he’d also reconnected with Findeison, who urged him to instead consider an open role directing the band at the junior high that fed his high school.
“Bill was my mentor and I still consider him to be, and he was very persistent with my seeking out this job [at the junior high] for some reason. He saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. I had enthusiasm. I had excitement. I was young and useful, and I was ready to go,” Green says.
Playing “One More Time” for Over 40 Years
When Findeison called Green seeking an associate director, rehearsal space and support for the ‘Rounders, his response was, “Sure!”
The band rehearsed for only four weeks, then marched and played in the festival parade as planned.
“The instrumentation was perfect – just the right number of clarinets and trumpets for a nice marching band,” Findeison says. “It was a hit not only for us but for the crowd, which went crazy. Crowds love marching bands, and they really love a marching band of old folks. They were doing it again and grinning from ear to ear.”
The opportunity for people to play with the ‘Rounders endures today, with the marching band and a spin-off wind ensemble launched in 2007, the Second Winds, which has about 80 members. Both groups gather for several weeks a year for rehearsal and performances.
While Findeison and Green retired from the ‘Rounders in 2022, they continue to co-conduct the wind ensemble. Longtime former ‘Rounder Valarie Nussbaum-Harris, who was one of Green’s students in middle and high school, leads the ensemble’s percussion section.
Bill, Roger and Valarie cherish their decades of friendship built through school years and later as adults, rehearsing and performing at events including the Portland Rose Festival, Fiesta San Antonio, St. Patrick’s Day Festivals in Dublin and Savannah, Georgia, the Calgary Stampede in Alberta, the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, twice.
“Now we’re at almost 60 years of being friends, [Bill] is like a brother, and we’ve gone through thick and thin together. We’ve journeyed through life, helping each other through the good times and the not-so-good times. And as a result, we’re like blood brothers,” Green says. “He means a great deal to me. It’s more than music. Music brought us together, but through music we have developed a lifelong relationship where we rely on each other.”
Nussbaum-Harris says the directors’ legacy is “almost unimaginable,” pointing to the impact they’ve had on people starting with students in elementary, middle and high school, and then the thousands of adults who’ve rekindled their love for playing through the ‘Rounders over the years.
Why Band Feels Like Home
Most current and former band students will agree it is a uniquely formative experience for personal and social growth – connecting with instruments, learning fundamentals, sharpening skills and cooperating toward common goals.
For those who grew up in them, band rooms feel like home and a safe place, Nussbaum-Harris says.
“It was a fun place. It’s a place where all your friends were, where the people who knew you best were. These are friends you’ve had your whole lifetime … and you just pick up right where you left off. There’s never skipping a beat,” she says.
Green says a big catalyst to the camaraderie is that with music, especially on this scale, people are working as individuals while also building relationships through cooperating toward a much bigger common goal.
“When you walk into the band room, you become part of a group. The social aspect is and was always important because you automatically have friends with a common thread that brings people together, which is music,” Green says. “You have the opportunity to be a part of something that, when you rehearse, you are building a relationship. When everyone does the same thing and has that commonality of wanting the piece of music to be performed well, they’re doing their part.”
Findeison notes how this has an equalizing effect, especially with the ‘Rounders and Second Winds, where the musicians assembled have even more vastly different lives than they did in school. There may be 40 trumpet players sitting next to one another, and none of them care who’s a truck driver, doctor, dentist or teacher – only that they’re playing the same part matters, he says.
At the same time, people have the opportunity to build social connections they might not otherwise.
“We can all make music together. Because of that, people keep coming back after high school, after college and doing adult life because they want to relive that excitement of being able to participate – that’s the word – participate in music together, not just listening but being part of what it is we hear,” Findeison says. “The best years were with the band, and the band became a way of life. The people became good friends and our social life. It is amazing the number of people within the band who ended up becoming lifelong friends, even married. My wife now, I met her in the band. It’s more than music. Music brings so much excitement, warmth, happiness and fullness to people’s lives if they choose to be a participant.”
