Hampton family proves Pine Creek Community Band is for everyone

The Pine Creek Community Band welcomes members of all ages and ability levels — no experience is needed.

“It enables a lot of people who enjoy playing music to get together and share that interest,” said conductor Randy Heide of Richland.

The Gardner family from Hampton embodies the band’s philosophy.

Bryan Gardner, 29, was the first member of the family to join the band as a percussionist. His parents, Chuck and Penny, followed.

Music is a lifelong passion for Bryan, who is on the autism spectrum and has a secondary diagnosis of ADHD. He previously played with his middle and high school bands and with the now-disbanded East Liberty Community Engagement Orchestra.

While Chuck played piano as a middle-schooler and sang in his high school choir, he had no band experience. He joined Bryan in the percussion section.

“I’d never touched a musical instrument before,” said Penny, who took up the clarinet.

The Gardners and the rest of the band will display their musical chops during a concert at 1 p.m. July 9 at The Block at Northway in Ross.

The program will feature standards from the band’s repertoire, including patriotic songs, John Philip Sousa marches and some contemporary pieces, Heide said.

It will be the band’s third concert this year, following two years of inactivity during the pandemic, he noted.

While the performance is free, donations will be accepted.

Always drumming

Since early childhood, “Bryan always loved music. He was always drumming, always keeping the beat,” Penny said.

His musical interests are wide-ranging, from crooners like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole to roots rockers like Elvis Presley.

During a family trip to Memphis, Tenn., to celebrate his graduation from Hampton High School at age 21, Bryan discovered the Sun Records legacy and expanded his interests into the blues, rockabilly and gospel.

Penny, who has a hearing disability, had decided to learn an instrument while Bryan was playing with the East Liberty ensemble. She was in her mid-50s at the time.

“I selected the clarinet, because I thought, ‘How hard can it be?’” she said.

When the East Liberty group disbanded, her music teacher suggested they check out the Pine Creek Community Band.

“We wanted to keep Bryan involved in music because he loves it so much,” Penny said. “I told Chuck he needed to come to practice to be there with Bryan, because he was in the back with the percussionists and I was in the front with the clarinets.”

“He doesn’t need that much support, but occasionally I do need to help him refocus,” Chuck said.

Bryan is able to answer questions and express needs verbally, Penny said, but isn’t able to sustain a reciprocal conversation.

While Bryan plays a metal bar instrument similar to a glockenspiel or xylophone, and occasionally the bass drum, Chuck chimes in on cymbals, triangle and sleigh bells.

Validation and inspiration

“We work around Bryan’s needs to accommodate him,” Heide said. “Bryan is a tremendous musician. He has a great ear and is able to translate what he hears.”

Having a musician such as Bryan “validates our charter of being a community organization that is there for everybody,” he added.

Founded in 1990 with seven members, the Pine Creek band now has about 40 members of all ages, ranging from physicians and engineers to “average Joes,” Heide said.

While playing with the band feeds their son’s love of music and gives the Gardners something to share as a family, his presence in the band also inspires others, his parents said.

“If you watch him long enough, you can see that he has a disability,” Chuck said.

They’ve had audience members tell them that seeing Bryan perform gives them hope for the success of their own special-needs loved ones.

“We always wanted him to be out there with everyone else, despite his challenges,” Chuck said.

“I could play till I’m 100 and never be as good a musician as he is,” Penny added.