Dutch Treat or Phileutonia Comes to America 
by Brent Mathews

Saturday, July 1, 1995

Following a good night’s rest after the U.S. Capitol concert and tour of Washington, D.C. on Friday, our guests are ready for some sight-seeing before the 8 PM concert scheduled for Saturday at Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia, Maryland. Excursions for the Netherlanders had been arranged by various host groups, according to the interests of the guests and abilities of their hosts. Since Ann and I had once lived in Annapolis, we feel comfortable guiding our live-ins on a tour of that historic and charming city. Sjef and Koosje Warmerdam, their 23 year-old son, Marcel, and their friend Marjan van Loon de Roos, always agreeable and energetic, look forward to the experience, I am thinking.

After a leisurely breakfast on the patio, the six of us pile into two cars and set off on the 70 minute drive from Towson about 10:30 AM. In preparation for today's concert, we load instruments and uniforms so that we can travel on to Columbia without returning home. It is a nice summer day; sunny, but not too hot.

Once entering Maryland’s capital city, we head for the old wharf and find a permanent parking place from which to see this quaintest part of Annapolis on foot. Not long after, thirsty and hungry, we head for a convenient pub, first checking out the schedule of motorboat tours of the harbor. Refreshed and relaxed after a lunch of seafood, washed down with beer, we have only a short wait before the next launch docks and we spend the next hour poking into Spa Creek and skirting the U.S. Naval Academy and the various docks and boat yards.

Suddenly, as we return, the wind shifts and dark clouds begin to roll in. We just miss reaching our cars before the downpour. Wet and warm, we creep through torturous traffic until reaching the Naval Academy, which I drive through during hurricane-like winds and rains. The rain doesn’t last long, but it is drenching, and after a detour to show the guests where we used to live, we head off in the direction of Columbia. By now it is 2:45 PM.

Arriving in Columbia, we discover that the rain reached that area after it hit Annapolis and the grassy slope is very wet where our prospective audience will spread out blankets and erect lawn chairs to listen to the concert. In fact, scores of ducks from the lake are on the grass picking up worms that the water has pushed up out of the earth. A call on the cellular phone to my answering machine confirms my suspicions. There is a message from Rick LaRocca, concert coordinator, saying that our concert is called off. Time of the message: 3:30 PM. Unfortunately, it is too late to head off the two buses that were to begin picking up PHILEUTONIANs in Severna Park at 3:30 and Towson at 4:40, respectively. It is now about 4:30 and within the hour we’ll have close to 200 people on our hands (140 PHILEUTONIANs plus many of their hosts) and no contingency plan for the evening.

Confusion reigns for the next two hours. Gradually, people get the word and make their own plans. Some go shopping at the Columbia Mall. The PHILEUTONIA sponsors retire to the Columbia Inn, where they are staying. Many of the others visit nearby restaurants such as Clyde’s, eating, drinking, talking and socializing, so that when it is time for the buses to leave, we can barely drag them away.

Upon arriving home with our house guests, Ann and I explain that we usually attend church on Sunday morning and we ask them if they have any music they can play after the service during the social hour. So at 11:30 PM there is a rehearsal in our living room consisting of three clarinets and a trumpet (trying to sound like a clarinet) playing 16th century music. An unexpected treat.

Sunday, July 2, 1995

At church we introduce our guests to the congregation of Maryland Presbyterian Church, feeling proud that they are there with us and happy that they can contribute their music.

Returning home, we get our uniforms and equipment ready for a combined concert of both our bands to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the renovation of the Inner Harbor. Plans call for a home-cooked lunch at Light Street Presbyterian Church, informal sight-seeing at the Inner Harbor, the concert from 7:30 to 9 PM and a party for all band members and their companions at The Baltimore Brewing Company, a micro-brewery and restaurant near the Inner Harbor.

The hearty lunch of ham, string beans, pasta salad and shortcake is well received by PHILEUTONIANs in two sittings at 2 and 3 PM. [The recipe for the string beans appears at the end of this article.] Before and afterward they are able to walk to and from the church to see the sights of the Inner Harbor. At 5:30 PM Gideon Kloze of Harbor Place Associates meets representatives of both bands and opens a vacant store for the PHILEUTONIANs to use for changing into their uniforms.

About the same time, Andrew Seacord and his son, Sam, arrive with our equipment truck and we unload everything from trombones to timpani and began setting up for the combined concert. This concert turns out to have a huge audience, probably 10,000 people. Because of the long Independence Day holiday weekend there are more visitors at the Harbor than on other weekends and the advertising of the Inner Harbor anniversary celebration has added to the crowd. By the time the two bands are ready to play, at 7:15 PM, there is a circle of people about 100 feet in diameter around the two bands and this ring is six to eight rows deep and packed solid. Then there are people listening and walking for about 1,000 yards in all directions. People are listening from restaurants at ground level and from balconies.

PHILEUTONIA plays first, including their 24-piece, stand-alone percussion (slagwerk) group conducted by Jan van der Sommen and the full band conducted by Gert van Kraay. A great favorite with the audience is Leroy Anderson’s Bugler’s Holiday, featuring a double trio of trumpeters. Next, the Columbia Concert Band has its turn. I notice that the audience seems transfixed. There is no sign of inattention or restlessness within that 100 foot ring of about 6,000 to 8,000 people. They seem to be glued to the spots where they are standing.

After the Columbia Band plays for about 45 minutes, both bands combine to play three compositions together. Gert van Kraay conducts the two Dutch pieces, Brabant Fantasy and Bavaria March. Finally, just at 9 PM, as it is getting dark, Robert Miller steps up to the podium and conducts both bands in John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. Immediately, a fireworks display begins erupting from a barge out on the water and continues during the playing of the entire march. The audience cheers and, even while playing, I feel goose bumps on my arms. This one moment makes worthwhile all the planning that went into PHILEUTONIA’s visit to the USA.

After packing up all the equipment and loading it onto Andrew’s 15 foot Ryder truck, our ubiquitous school buses appear, as if by magic, to take our Dutch friends to a party at the Baltimore Brewing Company. Theo DeGroen, part owner of the brewery-restaurant, has relatives in Helmond and has generously agreed to treat about 250 of us to food and drinks starting about 9:30 PM. Fortunately, many of our PHILEUTONIA guests will be joined at the party by their Columbia Concert Band hosts. This way the buses won’t have too many people to take home at the party’s end.

I know that the PHILEUTONIANs like to party because I had attended a rehearsal with them in the Netherlands, following which we drank beer until 1:30 AM, but I am not prepared for the energy that they show at DeGroen’s even after a full day at the Inner Harbor. Sjef Warmerdam, chief PHILEUTONIAN party organizer, has arranged for certain instruments to be held out from the equipment truck so that they could be used for the “party band.” By 11 PM almost the entire party is singing and marching in a circle around the perimeter of the Baltimore Brewing Company interior, with Sjef leading the band by playing his trumpet while standing on a table. The sound volume is deafening, especially because of the brick walls, which act like an echo chamber.

Later there are speeches by Jan Jager, PHILEUTONIA President, and Jan Swinkels, Chairman of the PHILEUTONIA Sponsors and then more music and singing, eating and drinking. By 1 AM the bus drivers are anxious to leave, the party seems to be winding down and Mr. DeGroen’s staff is tiring, so we load the buses and try to explain to a couple of new drivers how to take passengers directly to their houses because we have told hosts that they didn’t have to stay up to meet their guests at the bus stops. I volunteer to lead one of the drivers to the homes of those on the route nearest my home in Towson.

On the final leg of this journey at about 2:15 AM I am pulled over by a policewoman because she saw me falling asleep while driving. After parking my car near Towson State University, I am dropped off at my front door at 2:45 AM, only to find my wife, Ann, and four PHILEUTONIAN house guests standing on the front lawn, waiting. They are locked out of the house!

Monday, July 3, 1995

This day is a day of rest after the long one on Sunday and another long one scheduled for Tuesday, involving two Independence Day parades. The Warmerdam’s daughter, Esther, and her companion, Sander van der Loo are brought to our house by Wendy Handler [now Weissman], their hostess. Sander has to return today to the Netherlands to play with the Marine Band.

We decide that Ann will take Koosje, Marcel and Marjan shopping, while Sjef and I will drop Esther and Sander off Downtown for more sight-seeing there. Wendy will pick them up later and take Sander to the airport. Still later, Wendy and Esther will meet us all at the party.

Many hosts take their guests sight-seeing today. Some visit the National Aquarium, located only a few blocks from where we were yesterday. Our project is to help our oldest daughter, Peyton Garliss, and her husband, Todd, host a cookout to include all the hosts and PHILEUTONIANS using the Towson bus stop at Maryland Presbyterian Church.

Peyt and Todd are hosts to five young people; Manon Musman (16), Saskia Pluijms (18), Danielle Stolk (18), Stijn Nijenboer (17) and Koen Smits (20). Others who attend the cookout are: hosts Ed and Pat Bouwer and their guests, Jan and Maria Sneijers; hosts Angela and Bill Breakey and their guests, Terry Hurley and Toine van Stiphout; hosts Marion and George Brecht and their guests, Jan and Helena van der Sommen; hostess Wendy Handler [Weissman] and her guest Esther Warmerdam; hosts John and Robin Hyrniewicz and their guests, Jean Louis Finta and Claudia Coppens; hosts Olga and Bob Gerkens and their guests, Piet and Huberta van der Sommen; hostess Sandra Graham and her guests, Adrie de Bode, Desere Laros, William Finta and Maarten Moors; hosts Ann and Brent Mathews and their guests, Sjef and Koosje Warmerdam, Marcel Warmerdam and Marjan de Roos van Loon; hostess Sylvia Schaffer and her Guests, Henk Stiphout, Miriam van Bommel, Hendric de Ruijter and Anke Vliegenberg.

The weather is perfect for the party and everyone mixes well and has a pleasant and restful evening.

Tuesday, July 4, 1995

We awaken early to this, the pivotal day of PHILEUTONIA’s visit. The tour had been scheduled to include Independence Day because we knew that there would be opportunities for concerts during this period. Two parades are planned for the “Fourth”: one at Towson in the morning and another on the other side of Baltimore, at Catonsville, during the afternoon.

Three bus loads of PHILEUTONIANs are scheduled to converge on Towson by 9:30 AM. At 9 AM I leave the house with my four guests to meet the buses, only about a mile away. One bus has already arrived, but we can’t find a parade official to tell us where the band should assemble in the parade staging area. After some driving around the parade route while the passengers wait on the buses, now assembled, I find someone to tell us where to unload and the band gets ready to parade.

Having been on the Towson July 4th Parade Committee for several years, during which I had contacted all the bands, I am reasonably sure that PHILEUTONIA is the largest band that has been in this parade, or in any other Baltimore parade for some time, if ever. They make a stunning appearance, with banners out front, followed by formally-dressed sponsors wearing derby hats and led by Band Master Jan van der Sommen. All the band members are dressed in their black uniforms, resembling those of French gendarmes.

When the parade leads off at 10:30 AM, PHILEUTONIA is in the first part and I walk alongside, taking pictures. The sun is shining, but it is not sweltering hot, as is sometimes the case on “the 4th.” The crowd is six deep on both sides of York Road, somewhat lighter on Pennsylvania Avenue, but as usual, covers every inch of sidewalk on Washington Avenue, as the band makes a left and passes the reviewing stand. We hear the announcer, a local radio personality, saying the words we had submitted and I recognize “PHILEUTONIA” over the din of the trumpets and drums and the roar of the crowd.

Soon, the loud cheers and blaring horns are left behind and the band members break rank and wander down to the relative quiet of Susquehanna Avenue, where the buses and box lunches are waiting and folks can visit the American Legion hall, where it is air-conditioned, and they can pick up a free hot dog or soda and use the toilets, if necessary.

But this leisure is not for long. Only an hour passes before the buses must be boarded again for the 35 minute ride to the Knights of Columbus hall in Catonsville for another “pit stop” and then a half-mile drive to the check-in point of the Catonsville parade.

The Baltimore Beltway provides smooth sailing for the buses, but I notice that the sky has become cloudy and it is beginning to look like rain. We take the Edmondson Avenue exit and, after about a half-mile, swing left onto Beaumont Avenue. As we near the K of C hall, the narrow street becomes impossibly clogged with cars and people crossing back and forth between the building and a parking lot. We let off some passengers who want to go into the building and somehow the three buses manage to wait for them to return and then be on their way, thanks to the courtesy of passenger car drivers, who defer to the needs of the bus drivers.

By now the rain has started and some of the band members are expressing concern about parading in it. (I know that this parade is never canceled because of rain. One year I marched in it during a downpour so hard that my uniform sleeves filled with water while I held my trumpet up.) The buses line up in the staging area and wait for the parade to begin at 3 PM. The rain is light and after about twenty minutes of waiting, some of the band’s teenagers become restless and get off the bus, waiting outside and getting wet. The rain begins to slack off as we are called to line up. Dr. Jan Jager has put out the word that no one who objects to marching in the rain should do so. A few people hang back, but almost the whole band lines up.

Walking alongside the band, I notice a difference in its sound as they begin to march and play. We are missing a tuba and a baritone sax. Suddenly, I spot some missing players walking out of a side street up ahead. The bus driver took a short cut to the parade route so they might join the others before passing the reviewing stand at the K of C on Frederick Road. The rain has stopped. Spectators and vendors are spilling into the street and I help clear a path for the band. Continuing down Frederick Road and turning right at Bloomsbury, the route ends at the junior high school. Instead of just disbanding this time, Jan van der Sommen lines up the band under a canopy to play a couple of marches, delighting neighbors and other marchers who had finished earlier and are still waiting around. Quite a showman, Jan.

The buses meanwhile had found their way to the end of the route and are standing by to take PHILEUTONIA to the K of C for a buffet dinner. Unfortunately, one of the drivers gets confused and drives halfway to Towson before his dispatcher is contacted and sends him back to Catonsville. His poor passengers spend an unnecessary 45 minutes on the bus and arrive at the K of C just before all the food is put away.

Still, I am well pleased with the way this hardy organization has made it through two parades and have kept on schedule. It is only six-thirty and still light outside. In another hour all Netherlanders who have not been picked up at the K of C hall by their hosts will be back at their bus pickup stops ready to join various groups who will serve refreshments and watch fireworks.

Ann and I and our guests join Sandra Graham and her four guests at Sandra’s house along with Bill and Angela Breakey and their two guests. We enjoy a cookout and from the back yard watch one of the distant fireworks displays. A perfect end to our long Independence Day celebration.

Wednesday, July 5, 1995

This is the “wrap-up” day of PHILEUTONIA’s tour. Some of its members take advantage of a sight-seeing visit to Goddard Space Flight Center, arranged by CCB clarinetist Kathie Kull [now Blackman], an employee there. Many do their last minute shopping. A cookout is planned in a pavilion at Centennial Park beginning at 1 PM and lasting until PHILEUTONIA’s concert there.

I learn that PHILEUTONIA member Kokki Wagemans, a trumpet teacher who is staying with Nick Panebianco in Beltsville, is interested in visiting Chuck Levin’s Music Center in Wheaton. We find that Gert van Kraay would like to go there also. Sjef and I arrange to pick up Gert and Jim Fozard at Jim’s house, where Gert and his family are staying, and drive to meet Kokki, her husband, Joannes van Aaken, and Nick in Wheaton. But first, Sjef and I make a detour to the Inner Harbor to pick up a souvenir poster for Gert, advertising the thrilling Sunday evening concert. By the time we reach the Music Center it is almost 1 PM and Kokki, Joannes and Nick have been there an hour already.

It doesn’t matter. Kokki is intent on making a big investment and she needs time to decide. We find a trumpet specialist and go up on the elevator to a room filled with shelves of trumpets. I learn that both Kokki and Gert are interested in purchasing trumpets and we spend about an hour talking with the salesman and trying out different instruments. Finally Kokki buys a very unusual Bach Stradivarius trumpet that has a sterling silver bell pipe. Gert buys a standard Bach Strad. I buy one of the new Bach mega-mouthpieces. We leave the store with a feeling of accomplishment and pleasure.

Arriving at Centennial Park about 3 PM, we find the picnic in full swing. The picnic committee chairperson and CCB saxophone player, Anne Overall, has done a super job on a small budget. Various cold and cooked foods are laid out, buffet style, in large plastic containers borrowed from the Sykesville Strawberry Festival, courtesy of sax player Jeff Beavin.

The pavilion is on a hill overlooking the lakeside site where PHILEUTONIA will present its concert. The weather is warm and fair and several young people are playing volley ball on a court downhill from the pavilion. Everything is going just as we planned!

About 5:30 PM, the picnic committee begins to pack up the food and the PHILEUTONIA members change into their band uniforms in preparation for the 7 PM concert. Some, whose hosts live nearby and provided transportation have spent the afternoon doing other things. My wife, Ann, took Marjan van Loon and Koosje and Marcel Warmerdam shopping in the morning and they arrived at the pavilion even before Sjef and I did.

The concert “stage” is a concrete slab, over which is erected a white, architecturally interesting tent-like covering with an open front and partially open sides. The audience brings chairs and blankets and sits on the lawn, facing the band and the lake. Some distance off to the right side of the stage is a dock where there are “carry-out” food service and rest rooms.

The concert itself is another memorable experience. The audience numbers several hundred and we have a chance to distribute to all of them the program book prepared by oboe player Sue Hassell and other Columbia Band members. The same book was used all week. It includes information about both bands, their concert schedules, information about the Netherlands and ads, which help pay for the expense of entertaining the PHILEUTONIA organization. Before the concert, Gert invites Mike Blackman, CCB clarinet player and assistant conductor, to play with PHILEUTONIA in the absence of Sander van der Loo, who had to return to the Netherlands on July 3.

Following some preliminary ceremonies conducted by park officials, PHILEUTONIA’s 24-member slagwerk (percussion) group opens the concert, as it did the three earlier ones, with an unusual selection of “stand-alone” percussion compositions, produced by the group’s leader Jan van der Sommen. The band concert itself is another winner and the audience shows its enthusiasm and appreciation for the music throughout the evening. Word has spread about the excellence of this band and people have come from as far as Annapolis and Washington to hear it.

Little noticed during the concert were two rented trucks parked off to the left side of the stage, a Ryder and a Pelske. Now that the concert is over and packing up begins, I remember why. The Ryder truck is the one that Andrew Seacord has been driving for the week to carry the heavy instruments. Equipment chair Nadine Markham-Itteilag has kept track of which instruments PHILEUTONIA needs for concerts and parades and Andrew has produced them at the right place and time. Now it is time to separate PHILEUTONIA-owned instruments from those on loan from the Columbia Concert Band. The PHILEUTONIA instruments go into the Pelske truck, which will take them to Kennedy Airport tomorrow, and the other instruments go into the Ryder truck to be returned. Barbara and Hohman Bayer, Manager and President, respectively, of The Woodlawn Motor Coach Company, personally deliver the truck and attend the concert.

Nadine and Andrew are helped by Erik Martens, Rolf Bloks and other PHILEUTONIA members and the packing work proceeds expeditiously. Nevertheless, this is an evening of good-byes and we have a difficult time getting people to board the buses. They just don’t want to leave. Too bad there isn’t another day left just for partying. But the park personnel are anxious for us to clear the area and I know that everyone must wake up very early Thursday morning to meet their buses bound for Kennedy Airport.

Thursday, July 6, 1995

Ann and I plan to accompany the Netherlanders on the motor coaches that will take them to Kennedy Airport. We are all up at 6 AM and breakfast is at 6:45. Two motor coaches and one bus will pick up PHILEUTONIA members at the usual bus stops beginning at 6 AM and three motor coaches will leave from Maryland Presbyterian Church in Towson at 8:30. Ann and I show up at the church parking lot with our guests about 8 AM and one motor coach is there. Soon the school bus and the other two motor coaches arrive. Selective Affairs Caterers drop off our box lunches. People stow their luggage and say good-bye to their hosts. Just as we begin to think about leaving, a car swings into the parking lot. It is John Hyrniewicz with his guests, Jean Louis Finta and Claudia Coppens. They missed the bus and John drove them to Towson all the way from Laurel with just minutes to spare!

We pull out of the parking lot at about 8:35 AM. Our bus drivers are the same ones that brought the group down from Kennedy on June 28.

The weather is beautiful; sunny and not too hot. The buses make good time without speeding. Our first destination is not the airport, but Wall Street Pier 11, Manhattan, for a 70 minute sight-seeing cruise along the East River. The appointed hour for the cruise is 2 PM, but because we didn’t have to stop on the way, we arrive at 11:30 AM. The cruise boat is at the wharf and we are told that we can leave at Noon, to which everyone agrees.

There is one problem, which is that the equipment truck is supposed to meet us at Pier 11 at 3 PM and there is no way to contact the driver, who would be out of touch with his dispatcher by now. So we ask the bus drivers to return at 3 PM and we will find something to do after the boat ride ends at 1:15 and before our rendezvous with the equipment truck at 3.

The cruise takes us north along the east side of Manhattan, under the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, past the United Nations Headquarters to within sight of the Queensboro Bridge and Roosevelt Island before turning south again to travel within photographing distance of The Statue of Liberty. It is sunny and breezy aboard and everyone is carefree; a wonderful change of pace from the rigors of the past week.

After the cruise we have about 90 minutes to kill before the buses and the equipment truck show up. Many of us walk north to another pier in the South Street Seaport complex at which there is a restaurant on the upper level, overlooking boats and the water. Having eaten the box lunches before 11 AM, we are ready for a beer and some warm food this time. Everyone is in a jokingly good humor. Following a leisurely walk in the sun around the docks, we stroll back to Pier 11 just before 3 PM. The equipment truck has already arrived and the buses drive up exactly on time.

Before taking the Midtown Tunnel to Queens and the airport, the buses go a little farther north so that our passengers can see the United Nations Headquarters from the west (entrance) side. This is of some interest to our group, but I sense that they have other things on their mind and are anxious to be on their way.

As always, our drivers make good time getting to the airport by about 4 PM and we unload our precious crew, their bags and equipment. Even though Singapore Airlines Flight SQ025 doesn’t depart until 9:45 PM, everyone seems anxious to say their good-byes and to check in. Some are not going back on this flight but are renting cars at the airport to visit friends and relatives in the ‘States.

Two Netherlanders, Verheggen and Kruis, need to pick up a car in New Jersey and we arrange with the head driver, Ron Nock, with whom we shall return home, to drop them off on the way out. The two young men are on their way to Niagara Falls and later to Boston, where they will stay with a friend of Bruce Eicher, their host during the PHILEUTONIA tour.

As our empty bus makes its way back to Baltimore, we succumb to a rainbow of emotions: relief that the responsibility for the tour is off our shoulders; gratitude that all went well and there were no catastrophes; a warm flood of happy memories; but also a certain emptiness that we won’t be with our Netherlands friends for at least a year, maybe longer . . . maybe much longer . . . maybe not again.

Getting off the bus at Maryland Presbyterian Church to pick up our car, we thank Ron for a wonderful ride both ways. Driving the last three miles to home, we think pleasantly about getting a good night’s sleep and enjoying a clean house, which we had worked hard to achieve in the days prior to June 28.

The next day I receive the following fax message from Piet Heerkens and Jan van de Bovenkamp: “Thanks for your hospitality, your perfect organization. We want to inform you that we just arrived safely in Helmond, EST 10 AM."

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