Founded in 1896, the Augustana Band has endured as one of the university’s most visible and beloved ensembles for more than a century. This year, for its 130th anniversary, the university will celebrate this longstanding tradition in a big way. Along with the Augustana School of Music, the Augustana Band is inviting its alumni — both former students and its conductors — to participate in several events in the spring, as well as a fundraising initiative to raise money for band-related impact scholarships.
“I’ve just always been so proud of what it (Augustana) did for me and how it transformed my life,” said Dr. Greg Handel ‘91, executive vice president and provost of Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
The Freeman, South Dakota, native was a music education major and played trumpet in the Augustana Band. Handel’s mom claims that he wanted to go to Augustana ever since he was old enough to say it. He grew up playing piano and trumpet under the direction of the late Drs. Mary Helen Schmidt and Donald “Doc” Krueger, both professor emeriti of music at Augustana.
“I looked at other places (colleges) certainly, because I needed to, but everywhere else just paled in comparison,” said Handel, who also earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in music education. “My heart was always at Augie.”
During Handel’s time at Augustana, he met Jill Weber Aanenson ’93. Weber Aanenson was an engineering physics major at Augustana, however, the Lincoln High School graduate said playing in a symphonic band in college was still really important to her.
“I just loved that my experience at Augustana never required me to eliminate either of those two parts of who I am and really let me bring them together,” said Weber Aanenson, the founder of Scientific Consulting, Inc. who also serves on the Augustana Board of Trustees (BOT).
Weber Aanenson said she and Handel became “fast, immediate friends” and still talk regularly more than 30 years later.
“Greg and I sat next to each other at the (Augustana) Choir 100 concert. We were visiting and I said, ‘We need one of these.’ My brother was in the choir, and I got to watch him on stage with all of his friends,” Weber Aanenson said. “There are so many people I haven’t seen — not everyone comes back for homecoming (Viking Days) or Vespers, so this is a great opportunity to have alumni come together for fellowship, to share stories, and 130 seemed like the perfect time for us to do that.”
Now, the celebration they’ve been dreaming of is just months away. The Augustana Band 130 Celebration will begin on Thursday, April 23, at Trio Jazz Club in Sioux Falls, featuring Augustana Artist-in-Resident Matthew Whitaker — a Grammy-nominated pianist.
The festivities will continue into Friday, where alumni are invited to join a luncheon, followed by an alumni band rehearsal and dedication of the Pat Masek Instrumental Library in the Fryxell Humanities Center. The anniversary celebration will conclude with a performance that evening, with a reception to follow. The concert will pay homage to Dr. Bruce Ammann (photo credit: Argus Leader). The former conductor of the Augustana Band will come back to campus to lead the alumni band.
“Bruce was the example of everything I wanted to be in a professional, a musician, a conductor, a colleague … just his approach to the band, to teaching, to the dedication of the process and helping us learn what it’s like to be a part of this ensemble … it really did change my life,” said Handel of Ammann, who took over as conductor of the band his junior year. “I’m personally really looking forward to playing under his baton again.”
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A lot of people have been impacted by his (Ammann’s) teaching, by his leadership. Not only that, he’s a change maker. He just did so much for the institution, for the band program and really, just music all around in the region — working with schools and adjudicating festivals,” said current Conductor of the Augustana Band Dr. Chris Unger. “We’ve programmed one of his favorites, ‘The Hounds of Spring.’ He absolutely loves this piece.”
Another highlight of the concert will include the premiere of a commissioned piece by Jeremy Hegg ‘94, performed by the Augustana Band.
Hegg, who was in the same section of the Augustana Band as Handel in college, was also under the direction of Ammann. While both of Hegg’s parents were music teachers, it was Ammann who convinced the Dell Rapids, South Dakota, native to attend Augustana following a job shadow in high school.
“I was a band geek, and his excitement for the music he was doing and what he wanted to create at the college was infectious. It spoke to me. It was fun,” said Hegg, of The Hegg Brothers, who majored in music and helped start an acapella group on campus.
When Hegg was a senior, it was Ammann again who convinced him to write and conduct his first piece for the band, which has led to countless others for the music department, now School of Music, and beyond. Now an instructor at Augustana, it’s only fitting that Hegg does it again — for whom and where it all began.
“In a way, he (Ammann) was my first backer as a composer, a budding composer, so it’s very meaningful to me. It’s meant to be,” Hegg explained. “I just want to write a piece that he’ll enjoy.
“It’s challenging to write original music in this concert setting. I’m used to working in a jazz setting or pop setting, so this is a lot of fun. They just tell me the parameters. I just ask Dr. Unger, ‘What should I know about your woodwinds?’ You have to make sure these different parts are covered in a way or what to avoid. It’s no different than scouting an opponent for a sporting event.”
The event is sure to please, but Handel and Weber Aanenson also hope it strikes a chord with other alumni — inspiring them to support the ensemble for another 130 years. In conjunction with the celebration, they are inviting fellow alumni to help raise $130,000 by April 24 in support of band-related impact scholarships.
“To think about sitting on the stage close to the spot where I always sat when I was in the Augustana Band and looking across at some of those familiar faces who I played with 30 years ago … I mean, that’s pretty neat — an opportunity that you just don’t come by every day. It’s really fun and exciting to think about,” said Weber Aanenson. “As alumni, we need to remember how great we had it and all of the people who combined together to make those possibilities available to us while we were students, I feel it’s such an obvious way to give back.”
130 Years of History
From a student-led organization to being a part of the School of Music, the Augustana Band has come a long way in 130 years.
“It was a student-led initiative — a group of students met to discuss the possibility of forming a band. There was a lot of ingenuity there,” Handel said. “I think that ingenuity and that drive to establish and become an ensemble of enduring worth, to me, embodies Augustana.”
According to Handel’s dissertation, “The Augustana College Department of Music, 1921-1973: A History,” in 1900, the band was one of the few school activities in which students were able to participate. At that time, the band had 21 members and embarked on its first tour in southeastern South Dakota and Minnesota.
The band grew in number when the Lutheran Normal School and Augustana College merged in 1918. Over the next 10 years, the band provided both concert music, as well as music at athletics events.
A new era began when a symphonic band — exclusively a concert group — was created by the music department under then Director Richard J. Guderyahn. The symphonic band, which became known as the Augustana Band, made its debut during Viking Days in October 1931.
According to Handel’s dissertation, Guderyahn conducted the band until 1956 — the same year the Augustana Band would go on its first concert tour. That’s when Dr. Leland A. Lillehaug ‘51 came into the picture as Augustana’s professor of music and second director of bands.
“I think Augustana has been very fortunate in the people who have served the institution as conductors of the band. They’ve understood what the students needed, what the department needed and what the college needed along the way,” Handel explained.
F
irst documented in 1936, Lillehaug is credited with creating and developing the Viking Marching Band and Augustana Band Festival. The Viking Marching Band, which disbanded in 1974, returned to the university in 2021 after a 47-year hiatus. As for the festival, this year will mark its 69th year.
Lillehaug served as director of bands until 1977 and a faculty member until 1991. According to “A History,” when Lillehaug retired, Gary Tanouye became the third tenured conductor of the Augustana Band followed by interim directors Drs. Paul Schuerle, David Mitchell and Lillehaug once more.
In the fall of 1989, Bruce T. Ammann was hired as the band’s fourth tenured conductor. Under his leadership, the Augustana Band performed at many of the nation’s finest concert halls, including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He also led the band on its first international tour in January of 1999 to Asia; others followed in 2003 and 2007 to China, and in 2011 to Egypt, during the start of the Egyptian Revolution.
Ammann retired as director following a sabbatical in 2013, but not before leaving a lasting impact on Handel, Hegg and a countless number of other students.
During that time, Dr. Paul Schilf led the Augustana Band, a position he held until Augustana appointed only its fifth tenured conductor.
The Augustana Band Today
Unger, who holds degrees from the University of Western Ontario and the University of British Columbia, as well as a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from the Eastman School of Music, came to Augustana in 2015.
“I’m in my 10th year at Augustana, and I’m immensely proud to be the conductor of this group,” said Unger. “The students are absolutely wonderful, and they are very aware of the history and tradition of the group.”
When Unger arrived at AU, the work that Ammann did and Schilf continued, demonstrated a good traditional band program with really strong roots and great fundamentals. However, the band has shifted from being a big symphonic band — a band of approximately 75-80 members — to a wind ensemble of 50 or so members, which showcases one to two players per part.
“When I was in the band, it was a symphonic band, the larger ensemble, but that was symbolic and indicative of the time. Now, ensembles have to be flexible. The top ensembles of most colleges and universities are that of a smaller group because of the integrity and rigor of the literature that’s played,” said Handel. “I think it’s exactly where it should be from a programmatic perspective, and I think Chris is doing a great job.”
In conjunction with the School of Music, the band has taken part in recording initiatives, landmark performances at state and regional conferences and international touring. In fact, the band will travel to Spain next year.
“The core idea and the core traditions of the group remain the same,” noted Unger. “I feel like it is just such a wonderful family of musicians — they’re motivated, they’re smart, they work hard — and it’s such an honor to be in front of them.
To register for the Band 130 Celebration, visit augie.edu/Band130Registration. To support band-related impact scholarships, visit augie.edu/Band130.