This great article about Mr. Weed appeared in this weekend's St. Albans Messenger. For those of you that are former Sterling Weed Students, if you would like to buy a souvenir copy, and the local stores no longer have copies, if you contact The St. Albans Messenger Office on North Main Street in St. Albans, I am sure you can get a copy there.
Dinner, dance tribute next Friday evening
By ANN HAWKSBY
Messenger Correspondent ST. ALBANS — Weed’s Imperial Orchestra will have its audience stepping back into a piece of history during the Sterling Weed Tribute Gala slated for next Friday at the St. Albans Historical Museum.
“Close your eyes and pretend you were on the S.S. Ticonderoga in the 1930s listening to his orchestra,” said Al Perry, who as a drummer played with Sterling Weed from the mid 90s until the time of Weed’s death in 2005. Perry’s wife, Marcia, was a pianist with the orchestra for six of those years as well.
Al Perry, who prefers playing music to listening, described playing with Weed’s orchestra as “a special treat,” in that he could see so many people enjoying their music and dancing to it.
“Sterling Weed’s ‘book’ as we called it was mostly Swing music featuring music from the 20’s and 30’s and then into the 50’s and 60’s,” Perry said referring to the collection of sheet music that Weed left to the St. Albans Historical Museum in his will.
“It is such a wonderful resource, there are at least 1,000 orchestrations each for as many as 10 to 12 instruments, which is really quite remarkable,” said Perry. “It is a pretty rare find.”
Madeline "Maddy" Howard, 90, of St. Albans, remembers sailing out of Burlington on the side-paddle-wheel steamboat S. S. Ticonderoga for dinner with her parents, and the Sterling Weed Imperial Orchestra was playing.
"I was just a teenager at the time, and I can still remember how impressed I was," said Howard. "It was really quite special," she added.
The Sterling Weed Tribute Gala will be held in the Robert G. Bliss Memorial Auditorium at the St. Albans Historical Museum, located on the corner of Church and Bishop Streets by Taylor Park. The gala is a benefit for the museum and its programs.
It begins with a cocktail reception at 6 pm, followed by a dinner buffet catered by Jeff’s Maine Seafood, and the music and dancing from 7 to 9:30 pm.
Weed was a St. Albans native, who immersed himself in a musical career from age 14 up until just a few weeks before his death at age 104, making him the oldest bandleader in the nation at that time.
Known as Vermont’s “Music Man of the 20th Century,” Weed taught more than 4,000 students, and performed before an estimated 1 million people. In his career he was honored by President George H.W. Bush and again by President Bill Clinton, as well as U.S. senators and representatives, and by Vermont governors.
The Vermont Arts Council honored Weed with the prestigious Walter Cerf Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.
Virginia Bessette, who played saxophone with Weed’s orchestra for nearly 25 years vividly recalls the evening the New York Times wanted an interview.
“We were playing in Montpelier, and we were told some reporter from the “Times” wanted to talk with us,” Bessette said. “Well naturally we thought it was the Times Argus, only to find out it was really the New York Times, she added.
“Imagine how we felt - a band from St. Albans being interviewed for a New York Times article!”
Bessette said she was fortunate enough to have played with the orchestra on the beautiful Ticonderoga when it was in Shelburne, and she played with the Bellows Free Academy High School Band on the vessel’s very last cruise.
Standing in the Sterling D. Weed Memorial Music Room, surrounded by Weed’s uniforms, instruments, photographs, and memorabilia, St. Albans Museum President Warren Hamm and museum director Ally McDonald looked up at the tall glass-doored bookcase stacked full of Weed’s musical orchestrations.
“There truly has to be thousands of pieces in there,” said McDonald, his eyes still fixed on the timeless collection of Weed’s lifelong love. Hamm had no doubt that Weed had tweaked many, if not all of the sheets to suit his style.
During her interview Bessette remembered how Weed meticulously cared for his collection. “Every night it was a major thing to have the music back in all the cases; it was a real priority,” Bessette said.
Hamm’s eyes wandered over to the photos of the St. Albans and BFA, Fairfax high school bands that Weed had led.
“He taught just about everybody in the city to play. He taught me to play the piccolo,” Hamm said, smiling as he found himself and a few of his schooldays friends in one of the photos.
Weed also taught at schools in Enosburg, Franklin, Milton and Swanton. He directed the BFA- St. Albans Symphony, St. Mary’s School Symphony, the St. Albans Adult Civic Symphony, the St. Albans Boys Band, and the Enosburg Town Band.
Bessette, who soon turns 72, took her first lessons with Weed when she was just eight. During grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 she played with the BFA High School Band and continued until she graduated and went off to college.
When she returned after a number of years she was delighted to join Weed’s Imperial Orchestra, playing tenor saxophone.
The last 10-15 years she moved up to a lead alto player, and doubled on the clarinet.
“When Sterling’s eyesight went I took over his lead parts,” Bessette recalled. “He continued to play, but he memorized all his parts. He was just an amazing person and musician.”
Bessette will not be able to play with the Sterling Weed Imperial Orchestra this time, but wishes the other musicians well.
Taking the stage here next Friday and encouraging all to dance will be band members: Jo Anne Scott, alto saxophone; Jim Shepard, tenor saxophone; Michael McGovern, trumpet; Dick Toof, trumpet; Christopher Comstock, trombone; David Ashley, tuba; Marcia Perry, piano; and Al Perry, drums.
Meredith Gillian said she is hoping to play trumpet for at least a few songs, one of which was Weed’s favorite, “Let me Call You Sweetheart.”
Gillian, played with the orchestra for 20 years, and had also been Weed’s caregiver for 13 years. She had taken lessons from him starting in the sixth grade.
“I was so glad when he asked me to play in the orchestra,” she said. “I had been one of his students all the way through school.”
Gillian also plays a number of other instruments, and similar to Weed, music is her life.
She said that Weed, who never had children of his own, used to say, “This is my music family, and these are my children.”
Eric Bushey, who heads the instrumental music program at BFA, and who had played with Weed’s orchestra for eight years, now holds the baton.
“I’ve worked really hard to find members that had played with him, and we play gratis,” he said. “There is just no opportunity to play with such a fine group of musicians, and to play this collection. I love dusting off that music and bringing it to life.”
When asked how if felt to lead the Sterling Weed Imperial Orchestra, Bushey simply replied: “Mr. Weed will always be our leader.”
-- -- --
Tickets ($30 for museum members, $35 for nonmembers) for Friday’s Sterling Weed Gala Tribute can be purchased online
www.stamuseuk.com/events.html 
