12-05-2025
Conductor ready to pass baton for community band
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The Youngstown Area Community Concert Band has been performing around the Valley since 1984. It's the final season for the conductor, who's been around for all but six of them.
Joe Pelligrini remembers taking the baton in 1990 and giving his first signal for the band to start playing.'And when I gave that down beat, the sound was just incredibly good, and I knew I was going to enjoy conducting this group of people,' he said.
Pelligrini has hung around, and this will be his 35th and final season. He enjoys piecing together the summer season schedule. This is his last chance to visit the big venues, Austintown and Boardman parks, YSU and Stambaugh Auditorium — and conduct while being out in front of the band.'As a musician and as a conductor, you just get so much enjoyment from the performance, from the audience. And it's, it's just a wonderful thing,' Pelligrini said.
He is excited that 'Broadway Classics' is the theme for his final round of performances.
There are around 65 band members, including some who have been playing since the band's first show in 1984.
'You know the old saying, practice makes perfect. It's practice makes better, and you continually get better,' Pelligrini said.
All of the band's concerts are free. Pelligrini is proud of its annual Holiday Concert of Giving, which raised $4,000 in December, bringing its total over $60,000 donated to Second Harvest. The band's biggest strength lies right in the name.
'It's a community band. It's made up of members of the community all over several counties, and they perform for the community,' Pelligrini said.
The band's summer schedule will be an emotional run. Pelligrini knows his final concert will be December 21.
'I'm looking forward to this year, but I don't want it to go by too quickly,' he said.
The Younstown Area Community Concert Band has already started interviews to find Pelligrini's replacement.
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