The Golden Gate Park Band performed various songs from Mexico alongside a dance ensemble in honor of the band’s 143rd anniversary on Sunday. The band performs heritage-based concerts to collaborate with the diverse ethnic and arts organizations in San Francisco.
The local band, which formed in 1882 and comprises 30 members, performs a free, 90-minute concert at Golden Gate Park every Sunday from April through September.
Karla Kvam, the band’s board of directors’ vice president, said the band is a gem in the community of San Francisco.
“We are the oldest musical ensemble in the state of California and one of the oldest, most continuously performing ensembles,” said Kvam, who considers himself an advocate for the Latin American community.
Mark Nemoyten, a San Francisco State University alum who plays in the band, noted how preparing for Sunday’s concert was far different from playing one of his first professional gigs at SFSU.
“I was still a student at San Francisco State. It was one of my first professional gigs in San Francisco, and it was intimidating,” Nemoyten said. “They would do an hour rehearsal for a 90-minute to almost two-hour concert the morning of, but we never saw the music ahead of time. So you just come to rehearsal, the music’s on your stand.”
Alongside the symphony, various dance performances graced the stage to signify different parts of Mexico.
The concert closed with a group dance, where the ensemble gathered together to perform a caterpillar dance — a dance where the dancers and audience members form a line and dance like a caterpillar is moving around. German Gonzalez, the band’s conductor and director of music, was satisfied with how the concert turned out.
“Today went great,” Gonzalez said. “We love working with the Ballet Folklórico. This is probably the youngest group of dancers that we’ve worked with. So it’s really a lot of fun.”
Julianne Fischer, who also attended the concert, said Mexican culture is inseparable from American culture due to its historical ties with California.
“I love it,” Fischer said. “It’s just enthusiastic and should be regarded as part of American culture as well, because you know the famous expression, ‘They didn’t cross the border, the border crossed them.’”
The Golden Gate Park Band’s performances will continue through Sept. 28, with other performances honoring different heritages. In the following weeks, the park will hold an Irish tribute, a Spanish heritage concert and a “gratitude” concert,” according to Gonzalez.
“Our Gratitude concert, or our finale, [is] where we show everybody our gratitude,” Gonzalez said.
The park will also hold an event free to San Francisco residents today to mark the 10th anniversary of Golden Gate Park’s Flower Piano. During this festival, people are invited to enjoy the botanical garden’s plant collections as they seek out 12 pianos within the premises.
