The Municipal Band of Charlottesville, Virginia -- Music Directors

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Music Director

Mr. Layman served as a band director with the Albemarle County schools from 1977 to 2008, serving as band director at Walton Middle School for eight years and Western Albemarle High School for twenty-three years.  His Western Albemarle concert and jazz bands consistently received superior ratings at district, state and regional competitions.  He has also served as a low brass and concert band clinician and concert judge in Virginia and Kentucky.

Mr. Layman directed the University of Virginia Symphonic Band and Brass Ensembles between 1984 and 1990, and he is currently a member of the adjunct music faculty at Piedmont Virginia Community College teaching trumpet, trombone, baritone, tuba and band ensemble, and at James Madison University where he supervises student teachers in the Music Education program.  As a brass performer he has performed with the Charlottesville Municipal Band, Charlottesville University and Community Symphony Orchestra, the Heritage Repertory Theater, the New Lyric Theater, the Oratorio Society of Charlottesville-Albemarle, the Richmond Symphony, the Sentimental Journey Big Band, and the Virginia Consort Festival Orchestra. 

An amateur astronomer, Mr. Layman has served as president and secretary of the Charlottesville Astronomical Society.  He enjoys CCD imaging and participating as a presenter and telescope operator for group nights at UVA’s McCormick Observatory.  His wife Alice is the elementary music teacher for St. Anne’s Belfield, organist/choir director for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ivy, and accompanist for the University of Virginia Drama Department.  His daughters Laura and Martha are vocal music education majors at James Madison University.

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Assistant Music Directors

In 1989 Mr. Fagan was elected Central Virginia Outstanding Middle School Teacher by the University of Virginia Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa.  In 1999 he received an Outstanding Educator Award from the Virginia Governor’s School for the Visual and Performing Arts and was listed in the 2000 edition of “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers”.  He was also named Educator of the Year in 2001 by the Piedmont Council of the Arts in Virginia.  He is active in the Music Educators National Conference and the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association.  He is a member of A.S.C.A.P., the National Band Association, the Percussive Arts Society and Phi Beta Mu International Bandmaster Fraternity.  He is a percussionist with the Charlottesville Municipal Band, having played with the group since 1977.  He is active as a band clinician and adjudicator in addition to composing and arranging for band.

Mr. Fagan has had over thirty compositions for band published by Heritage Music Press, MSB Publishing Company, Grand Mesa Music Publishers, Daehn Music Publications, Ludwig Publishing and Alfred Music Publications.  Seven of these pieces have been performed at the prestigious Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago.  One was performed at the White House several years ago and at the inauguration ceremony for former Governor Douglas Wilder in Richmond, VA.  His biography and compositions are listed in the Heritage Encyclopedia of Music.  He is currently under contract for future publication with Alfred Publishers.

Mr. Torian is also the former Music Director at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Charlottesville, where he and his wife, Theresa, shared leadership responsibilities for eight choirs and instrumental ensembles.  He is a freelance composer and arranger of band and choral music, writing also for various instrumental ensembles.

Mr. Torian is the owner of Hummingbird Music, a small music publishing concern.  In addition to playing oboe and English horn in the Municipal Band he enjoys genealogical research, photography, fresh-water fishing, and raising standard dachshunds.

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Music Director Emeritus

James W. Simmons assumed the position of Music Director of the Charlottesville Municipal Band on February 1, 1980 and was the Band's sixth music director. A native of Charlottesville, he graduated from Lane High School in 1947, received a B.S. in Music Education in 1951 from Concord College, Athens, West Virginia and a M. Ed. in Music Education from the University of Virginia in 1959.

In 1956 Mr. Simmons became band director at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, a position he held until 1971, during which time the Albemarle Band consistently received "superior" and "excellent" ratings at festival competitions.  In 1971 he was appointed Fine Arts Coordinator for the Albemarle County Public Schools, a position he held until his retirement in 1984.

Mr. Simmons was active in the Virginia Band & Orchestra Directors Association and the Virginia Music Educators Association.  He is a past president of both organizations and was honored by VBODA for his "many years of contributions to the improvement of instrumental music in the Commonwealth of Virginia".  He also served as Editor of VEMA's official publication "NOTES".

Mr. Simmons began playing in the Charlottesville Municipal Band in 1946 and has served on two occasions as President of the Band's Board of Directors.  He was appointed Music Director of the Band in 1980, and during his twenty-six year tenure the Band increased in both membership and musicianship, playing many concerts both in Charlottesville and in surrounding communities and across the state, attracting overflow audiences everywhere it played.  He retired on December 31, 2006, and conducted his final program at the Band’s Spring Concert on April 24, 2007. He currently is enjoying retirement from the Band by spending time with family and friends, traveling, attending opera performances and pursuing his hobby of photography as an active and award-wining member of the local photography club.

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Past Music Directors

1957 – 1980         Sharon Bernard Hoose, an Illinois native who received his musical training at Illinois Wesleyan University, became the Band’s fifth director in March of 1957 and served in that capacity for twenty-three years.  He had been a member and baritone horn soloist with the Band at the time of his appointment.  Mr. Hoose also served as director of the Lane High School (now Charlottesville High School) Band from 1941-1974, after which he continued as Coordinator of Music for Charlottesville Public Schools until 1980.  He earned an outstanding reputation throughout the state of Virginia for his leadership in public school music.  He was frequently asked to be a contest adjudicator and guest conductor for all-state, all-regional and all-county bands in Virginia, adjacent states and the District of Columbia.  He was a co-founder and past president of the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors’ Association and also a past president of the Virginia Music Educators’ Association.  It was at Mr. Hoose’s recommendation in 1957 that the Municipal Band’s Board of Directors first offered membership to women.  Mr. Hoose developed the Band’s musicianship to a level that placed it in the forefront of amateur municipal bands.  He was the Band’s Director Emeritus until his death in 1985 at the age of 73.

1950 – 1957         Marlin L. Brown came to Charlottesville from South Dakota, where he had been a public school band director.  He was a clarinetist who received his musical training from Sioux Falls College.  During his tenure as Director, the Municipal Band became the official band of the Charlottesville Fire Department, representing the city and the department at State Firemen’s Conventions throughout out the state for many years.  The Band often received first place trophies in recognition of its concert performances and marching at these events.  After leaving Charlottesville, Mr. Brown returned to his native South Dakota and retired there, returning to Charlottesville in 1997 to conduct the Band as a part of its 75th anniversary celebration.

1941 – 1950         Emil Rada was a former clarinet soloist with the U.S. Marine Band before retiring from the organization and moving to the Charlottesville area in the early 1940s.  Mr. Rada was a conservatory trained musician who performed with a number of military bands and prominent symphony orchestras and who played for five U.S. Presidents and a number of foreign royalty, including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England in 1939.  Mr. Rada was an “old school” musician who programmed concerts featuring marches and classical transcriptions.  On occasion he would also perform solos accompanied by the Band.  Mr. Rada died in 1961 at the age of 73.

1940 – 1941         Ernest G. Carr was a clarinetist with the Municipal Band.  He was asked to serve as Interim Music Director for a year following Harry Lowe’s retirement.

1922 – 1940         Harry Lowe, a native of England, was a cornetist who came to Charlottesville from New York City, where he had gained extensive musical experience playing on Broadway in theater orchestras, pit bands and Vaudeville.  He was responsible for initially training many of the charter members of the Municipal Band in how to play their instruments.  Mr. Lowe was a popular conductor, beloved by the Band’s members and the community alike.  He often would pick up his cornet and play along with the Band as he conducted from the podium.  Mr. Lowe died July 27, 1947.

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The Municipal Band of Charlottesville, Inc.
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Charlottesville, Virginia 22902-6480
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© 2008 – Board of Directors, The Municipal Band of Charlottesville, Virginia, Inc.

Page last modified November 29, 2011