Pacific to host band festival: Deck head goes here

Apr 18, 2009 (The Record - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- PAWS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Jean Gould is a good role model for young musicians. She won't force the issue, though.

Gould, who plays clarinet in the United States Army Field Band, will be the featured performer during today's seventh Pacific Western Concert Band Festival at University of the Pacific.

Two hundred students from four Northern California and Oregon high schools will take part in the daylong clinic, which culminates with a concert by Pacific's 49-member Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Gould's performance of "A Klezmer Tribute," a challenging choice.

"You have to be very flexible," said Sgt. Maj. Gould, a Pacific graduate who's been a member of the Army's top-level band for 26 years. "It is quite different and difficult."

A medley of four traditional klezmer tunes, "it's wild," said Eric Hammer, 58, a Pacific grad who's been the school's director of bands for 16 years. "She said it brings the house down every time."

Gould isn't a recruiter, but her proficiency and motivation should instill motivational inspiration.

"We do talk about opportunity in the military band," said Gould, 53, who was attracted to Pacific after attending its summer camp as a student at Danville's Monte Vista High School. "I'll let them know what's out there. They have enough pressure, you know. I didn't think about it, either, at that age. It's been a great career, really."

Gould, who was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Minnesota and Walnut Creek, chose that career as a way of "repaying the country for what it did for me."

After earning her Pacific degree in clarinet performance in 1978 and a master's degree at Indiana University in 1981, she was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship, studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and was the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra's principal clarinet player from 1981-83.

She then enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed at San Francisco's Presidio for a year. She's now woodwind group leader and concertmaster for the 65-member army orchestra. It's often accompanied by a 30-voice chorale. Gould also plays in the Army's Clarinet Quartet.

"It's a special band," Gould said of the group that performs around the nation and world 120 to 130 times a year. "We're the musical ambassadors of the army. We perform for the American public in support of our soldiers. It's very rewarding. People are wonderfully appreciative of the job the soldiers are doing."

Gould credits her grandmother with helping her tune in on the clarinet in fourth grade.

"She wanted me to play just like Benny Goodman," Gould said of the 1940s big-band leader. A "very excellent" private teacher helped and she attended Pacific's summer music camp, now 60 years old, in "1972 or 1973."

"They had some really super awesome conductors," Gould said. "Yeah, I got to sort of know the school."

She's also gotten to visit more of the world -- India, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Belgium, England -- and "we played for the 55th anniversary of D-Day."

They haven't performed in Iraq or Afghanistan, though.

"We have a rock band for that," she said. "That's what the troops want"

Gould, who lives in Silver Spring, Md., said she plans to spend "about" another year in the Army and then teach music, which she and her bandmates often do as part of their duties, which is part of the goal today.

"Yes, it's spreading the word," said Hammer. "But it's very low-key. If you build it, they will come. When they (students) hear a dynamic college band, that will plant the seed."

Gould can tell them all about that.

Contact reporter Tony Sauro at (209) 546-8267 or tsauro@recordnet.com.

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