Every Monday night, nearly 50 musicians of all ages, skill levels and walks of life fill the Amarillo College band room. In this eclectic mix, a former music professor sits beside a retiree, who sits beside a physician, who may be sandwiched in between a high school player and a CPA—and on it goes. But when the conductor lightly taps his baton and calls for a concert B, the shared goal of making music begins in unison.
That conductor is Bruce Collins, who’s been leading the Amarillo College Community Concert Band since 2022. This ensemble is open to AC students and community musicians alike, including high school students who qualify. The band rehearses on campus and performs several public concerts each year.
“Music was always in our home,” Collins says, reflecting on decades as a music educator and public school band director. “My mother was the pianist for our church, and my first instrument was the clarinet.”
Collins describes his seventh-grade year in Lubbock as pivotal for him. He played in the school band until, mid-year, his family relocated to Clovis, New Mexico. It felt like a musical setback, but Collins’ tenacious work ethic and strong rapport with his new conductor in Clovis improved his playing.
Ultimately, that experience drew him to the leadership/management side of music. “I love being in charge,” he admits with a chuckle. “And I knew that my strong suit would be as a teacher and conductor.”
A Place for Everyone
Directing a community band, Collins says, can be a bit like Forrest Gump’s famous “box of chocolates” reasoning: He never quite knows what kind of talent might walk through the door. Unlike a symphony orchestra, where professional musicians undergo a strict audition process, the community band is more relaxed. AC’s version is open to all, with no auditions required.
“I’m not always sure who can play what,” Collins explains, especially when it comes to introducing new music. “Plus, I don’t always know who is available at practice or rehearsal time.”
Collins has learned to become a problem solver. “I modify pieces to accommodate the various skill levels so that the music and performance is never compromised,” he says. Once, when a score presented a particularly difficult time signature—which dictates the rhythm and beat of a piece of music—Collins made charts to help each musician.
“It became a teachable moment,” he says, smiling. Every session provides the potential for new lessons learned.
Kellie Bartley, the development and donor relations officer for the Amarillo College Foundation who plays horn for the Amarillo Symphony, conducted the Community Concert Band before Collins. She keeps an anime-style drawing on the wall of her office. “This is a sketch of me conducting the community band along with one of our flute players in the background,” she says. It was drawn during a concert by the grandson of that flute player, and reminds her how music intersects with other areas of creativity.
Bartlet’s father played the tuba in the Army’s marching band. “I was always fascinated by how big and imposing it was,” she recalls. A multi-instrumentalist, she inherited a community band with only five members but worked hard to rebuild the band to its full complement.
Then came the pandemic, and the lockdowns and COVID restrictions of 2020. “Those were challenging days, indeed,” she says. “I am super proud of this band and how far we’ve come.”
She loves that it gives musicians, regardless of the detours in their lives, a chance to continue playing their instruments. It keeps the mind sharp. It offers a “home” to come back to. It acts as something of a family.
Finding a Way Back
Robert Banagay has recognized those benefits. “This is a really safe space to make some incredible music,” the alto saxophonist says. He’s performed with the band for three years. “You get it all: the rehearsals, the friendships, the performance nervousness and the joy of pulling it off.”
He started with the band roughly three years ago and sees it as the fulfillment of something that hit him all the way back in second grade. Growing up in Clovis, New Mexico, Banagay remembers when the high school band came to perform at his elementary school. He was blown away. “From there I knew, immediately, that’s what I wanted to do—play in a band,” he says.
By age 12, he had learned the alto saxophone. After high school, unless you become a professional musician, opportunities to play in a group are limited. Banagay mostly played on his own, until he moved to Oregon to work for a start-up tech company. He had a grueling schedule. “Back then I was working 80-hour weeks,” Banagay explains. “I just needed something.”
Something that wasn’t work. That’s when he saw an ad about a community band. As he tells it, he didn’t know exactly what a community band was. “I just grabbed my saxophone and showed up to the rehearsal,” he says.
The thrill of performing was reborn. When life brought him to Amarillo, he knew exactly what to do.
Making Room for Music
Dr. Antonio Flores also knows something about demanding work weeks. He typically clocks up to 90 hours as a family physician. But, like Banagay, he also knows the alto saxophone. Flores spent his university years with a double major: human biology (pre-med) and jazz performance.
During college—and even in high school—Flores served as a band assistant, ran music camps, gave private lessons and even performed in jazz bands all around Austin.
Flores never stopped playing or performing his music, even after establishing a medical career, and joined the AC Community Concert Band in 2018. Work sometimes means missing Monday night rehearsals, so he works with Bruce Collins to coordinate music and concert dates. He rarely misses a concert.
“Music does something that brings communities together,” he says. “There is something about experiencing music live in its rawest, purest form that you don’t get from simply listening to music on the radio or on iTunes, where it is edited and artificial.”
During those concerts, Jim Rennier keeps the beat as a seasoned percussionist and timpanist. A member since 2019 and former dean of the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities at West Texas A&M University, he’s spent decades teaching drum and percussion, and played with multiple orchestras in renowned music halls across the state.
Now retired, Rennier sees his role as a coach and mentor to less experienced musicians. “I have gathered lots of musical gifts along the way. I want to share and give back what I have gained,” he says.
Showing Up Again
Trumpeter Tony Rea got his start in Kermit, performing in the high school band before earning a music scholarship to the University of Texas El Paso. He intended to get a music degree and return home to be the school’s band director.
Life, as if often does, threw him a curveball. At UTEP, he ended up managing a hotel unit, which thrust him into the business world. Rea transferred to WT to pursue a business degree, putting away his trumpet for several decades until 2018, when he sold his local Gold’s Gym franchise.
Looking for a fresh start, he saw a Facebook ad about AC’s Community Concert Band. “To be honest, it had been such a long time since I picked up my trumpet, I wasn’t sure if I could even play anymore,” he admits. “But Kellie [Bartley] was so approachable. She made me feel totally at ease.” Rea discovered there were better trumpeters on both sides of him in his first rehearsals, but he persevered. His skills and confidence eventually returned.
Clarinetists Naomi Bencomo and Sammy Carter spend their days immersed in the music world. Both work full time on staff with the Amarillo Symphony, where Carter serves as marketing director and Bencomo as patron communication manager. After Bencomo joined the band in 2021, she convinced Carter to join.
Bencomo says heading into rehearsal after an exhausting workday can be a challenge. “Showing up is half the battle,” she says. Both recommend showing up on a regular basis, staying connected and being willing to grow in your talent.
On Monday nights at Amarillo College, all these different paths converge in the same band room. Some members have spent their careers making music. Others have built careers in hospitals or gyms, far removed from concert halls. Some never stopped playing, while others put away an instrument for decades before finding their way back.
Those distinctions don’t matter much once Collins raises his baton. Then, for a couple of hours at least, they’re simply musicians again, listening to one another and playing in harmony. They prove that making music is something you never really have to outgrow.
Amarillo College Community Band concerts are free and open to the public.
Fiesta Under the Stars (Sept. 26)
Stars & Stripes (Oct. 12)
Year-End Concert (Dec. 14)
Learn more at actx.edu/music/band.
