Wind bands are a long tradition for mass celebrations. Lately, they also became even more popular on “fashionable” weddings. Average citizens are only left to listen to the tunes performed by home-grown amateur wind musicians, who are sometimes playing at the bus stop near the Lutsk grocery market. Yet from time to time the boys from the Lutsk boarding school orchestra put suitcases for money and play in this or that microdistrict, perhaps earning for the new instruments.
Yurii Voinarovsky, the director of the Lutsk Palace of Culture, recalls the time of his studies at the Lviv Conservatory in the 1980s, when he worked in a symphony orchestra, and it also played in the park on weekends. Sometimes about 60 musicians, preparing a new program each time (today – Strauss, tomorrow – Mozart), were listened to by a dozen old ladies, who were knitting something for their grandchildren to the Strauss waltzes. However, in Mr. Voinarovsky’s opinion, these outdoor concerts of the symphony orchestra were reasonable, as they took place at a certain time, and connoisseurs of this art could appreciate it. Now Lutsk has seven wind orchestras, which can perform in the Central Park of Culture and Rest.
The tradition of such musicians’ performances is very old. And probably the wind band has no equals in entertaining the audience. As it is always festive and always excitingly moving. Yurii Voinarovsky was told that before the war, in the town of Kivertsi in Volyn, mass celebrations on the train station platform were very popular. People purposely bought tickets in order to go on the platform and listen to the wind band and to meet or see the train off to its music. The Lutsk Palace of Culture Wind Orchestra visited one of the French towns near Paris this summer, whose mayor is a big admirer of wind music and even is a jury member of the international festival, which takes place in Poland. There he heard the Lutsk wind musicians, who took the first place at this competition last year, and invited them to the festival of wind music in the town on Seine.
Wind bands marched the streets and played open-air. And participants of the Youth dance ensemble not only captivated the audience by dancing waltzes and mazurkas to the orchestra’s live music, but also made sensation when they passed through the city streets with the Ukrainian national flags during the parade.
In the Lutsk park, a better place for the wind orchestra is still being looked for, as carrying here a few dozen chairs each time is problematic. The listeners are offering to equip a special stage for such performances, and at the same time to separate a place where the enthusiasts could dance to the orchestra’s music.
