She’s with the band

by Aly Beery

Arts Editor

Every Tuesday and Thursday around 4 p.m., members of the Grinnell College Symphonic Band begin to trickle into Fine Arts 103 for rehearsal. Even though the music department hires a student to set-up and tear-down the chairs and music stands each day, five-foot-tall Evelyne Lawson consistently shuffles to the back of the room toward the extra music stands to retrieve another one.

The set-up crew assumes two musicians per stand for band members who play relatively small instruments such as the clarinet, which Lawson plays. Individual musicians are not considered when placing the sixty chairs and forty stands. This presents a problem for Lawson: she stands about a foot shorter than Dan Nemchonok ’06, her intended stand partner. Lawson is too short to share.

Eighty-two year-old Lawson has been playing the clarinet since 1934. She has been a member of the Grinnell Community Band for eight years and the Grinnell College Symphonic Band for four. Lawson also plays for the Methodist Church bell choir and chancel choir. Although music has remained Lawson’s steady companion for almost 70 years, the Community Band was the first performance setting Lawson had been a part of since college.

The Symphonic Band challenges her; Lawson claims that compared to high school when she polished challenging solos, she can’t play anything anymore. But she feels welcomed by the director, Mark Dorr, and other musicians in the band, especially those in her section. Besides, “I like to keep up with the college kids,” she said, “I want to know what’s up.”

When she was a freshman in high school, a man named Mr. Shedden formed a band for teenagers in Lawson’s hometown, Gympsum, Kan. “Everyone wanted their child in the band,” Lawson said. Lawson thrived, practicing in her spare time and frequently performing solos. Her high school band progressed as well, and even attended the National Music Contest in Lawrence, Kan.

Lawson continued to play her clarinet in college, but after only two years, she left her school in Emporia, Kan., and began teaching in a one-room country school. World War II put a tight grip on her father’s spending; college was simply too expensive.

For two years, Lawson worked in small, rural schools earning only $65/month her first year. Lawson made the best of the tight quarters and low pay; she encouraged students who knew how to play piano to entertain the class and often joined in by playing her clarinet.

Years later, Lawson had two sons of her own. The younger, Mark, started playing the trombone in fifth grade. “I took out my clarinet and played right along with him through junior high,” Lawson said. Aside from helping to motivate her son, Lawson’s playing helped prevent arthritis pain.

Lawson is glad that she gets the opportunity to play her clarinet in the Symphonic Band, but the music challenges her. She sometimes feels discouraged with her playing because it isn’t as technically sound as it used to be.

When she’s frustrated, Lawson turns to her section members. “Dan [Nemchonok] says, ‘Tighten your embouchure,’” Lawson said. “It’s just wonderful to have him there.”