Future Concerts
David R. Colkitt Memorial Scholarship
To honor a beloved member of the Buffalo Silver Band who suddenly passed last year, The Buffalo Silver Band renamed its annual scholarship competition: The David R. Colkitt Memorial Scholarship. David R. Colkitt. Until his untimely passing in 2023, David Colkitt was the longest continuously serving member of the Buffalo Silver Band. He joined the BSB in 1981 as an alto horn player, later moving throughout the cornet section until he settled in as principal 2nd cornet. He was a quiet leader who preferred to do rather than talk about what needed to be done.
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Holiday Concert: Christmas! Wrapped in Brass
December 14, 7:30 PM. Westminster Presbyterian Church
724 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14209
The Buffalo Silver Band played to a standing ovation on Saturday, December 14, in a festive holiday concert. Organist Garret Martin performed selections by Handel and Sullivan for brass band and organ, and James Bialasik, Superintendent of the Springville-Griffith Institute Central School District, narrated a musical arrangement of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” If you missed the concert, Laura Thompson recorded it on her iPhone. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv8s0A318TkXZT7Ye1QA4nDbvlR95gg4K&si=hC1Wl1iub_qqfywL
Featured Musician-Jim Faran
Jim Faran, Buffalo Silver Band’s principal alto hornist, has had a life-long passion for mathematics. There is an evidence-based family legend about Jim. Before Jim knew how to read, he would ask adults to read him arithmetic problems from a primer. Jim still has the primer, lending credence to the legend. He has studied mathematics and collaborated at Harvard, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, the University at Buffalo, the Institute for Advanced Study (where Albert Einstein emigrated from Nazi Germany), and the University of California at Berkeley where he earned a Ph. D. Jim currently is an Associate Professor and the Associate Chair in the University at Buffalo’s Mathematics Department.
When you hear Jim play alto horn, you might think he was playing that instrument before he could read as well. What is an alto horn? In a British style brass band such as the Buffalo Silver Band, the alto horn plays roughly in the same range as a French Horn and has a similar, mellow sound. But as Bill Cocca, Music Director of the Buffalo Silver Band, frequently explains to audiences, a British brass band can have nothing French, and the alto horn is an appropriate substitute. Save for the trombones and percussion, all the instruments in a British brass band have the same fingerings, and musicians often can play more than one of them. Such is the case for Jim, who has played solo cornet with the Buffalo Silver Band and still plays cornet and trumpet in other ensembles such as the American Legion Band of the Tonawandas. Jim has performed with the Buffalo Silver Band since 1992.
Jim has been married for 36 years to his wife Karen, a sales engineer. Jim is the proud father of James, a sports equipment engineer and a pianist/organist; Teagan, an Assistant Professor of Violin at Ithaca College; and Raymond, a trombonist and sound engineer. There is definitely something genetic going on here!
See if you can discern Jim’s golden tones at this concert!