Marvin Stamm - Community Colleges

Marvin Stamm
Jazz Trumpet

Cadenzas

Spring, 1999

Community Colleges - Some Thoughts

While attending the IAJE Conference this year, I had the great pleasure of performing with the Community College All-Stars under the direction of Matt Vance of Florida Community College at Jacksonville. The band rehearsed both my music and theirs over a period of four days, performing their concert on Friday afternoon.

This is the second time I have appeared as guest soloist with this group at IAJE Conferences over the years, and, having experienced this group before, I was not at all surprised that the band played beautifully! It was a very exciting concert as Matt Vance had done a superb job of rehearsing them, and they certainly rose to the occasion.

I have the opportunity of occasionally working with community college groups during the year and usually find that they are excellent! Although most people seem to think these schools are only for dropouts or students failing to qualify for other four-year schools, much of this is a fallacy; and to think that the music programs in these schools are not strong is also a misconception!

With musicians like Matt Vance heading up programs like this, you can beassured that the programs have some teeth. Two other strong programs that come to mind are Houston Community College in Texas whose program is stirred on by trumpeter Dennis Dotson and pianist Joe LoCascio and College of the Mainland in Texas City, TX guided by trumpeter Sparky Koerner. Sparky, also the IAJE Resource Chair for Community College Bands, has an exceptional program at his school and is continually bringing things into the community there; and the community responds in kind! His programs are well attended, and he has both the respect and the involvement of his community.

Community colleges are a resource in which students who cannot afford the more expensive schools can receive a good foundation with which to move up to a four year school. Also, it provides needed resources to those who may have first gone into the service or taken time off before continuing their education or pursued another direction before coming back to the educational environment. As well, these schools provide outlets to community members who want to come back to certain areas of interest to involve themselves in chosen endeavors that challenge or improve their skills in those fields. Many of these persons find the time to do so only later in life.

Truth be told, we should be hailing these community college systems that afford so much that the larger schools cannot or do not desire to offer. They work with a different and extremely eclectic group of students that the regular colleges have no interest in providing for while filling a gap in our system that reaches all kinds of people on many different levels and doing so beautifully. Truly, we should be praising these entities that reach so many, certainly not disparaging them!