Music lovers will flock to Fayette on Saturday, April 17, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bandstand. A staple on the southwest corner of the courthouse lawn, it was built in 1971 with proceeds raised by the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia professional music fraternity at Central Methodist College, now Central Methodist University.

The bandstand was built on the same site where a previous bandstand stood some three decades before and was dedicated to former Central band directors Keith K. Anderson and Dr. Thomas E. Birch. In 2007, a plaque honoring Prof. Keith House was added to the memorial. Now a fourth name and plaque will be dedicated in the name of the late Dr. Paul A. Montemurro, who was the director of bands at Central from 1967 to 1972.

The event kicks off at 2 p.m. with music from The “M” Band. Musicians are Central alumni Skip Vandelicht,’ 77, on saxophone, Ted Spayde, ‘70, on bass, E. E. Pointer, ‘71, on trumpet, Gene Rauscher, ‘74, on drums, and Kenneth Page, ‘72, on piano. An invocation by the Rev. David Wendleton, ‘71, will follow. 

Prof. Vandelicht, the current band director for CMU, and former Fayette High School band director for more than three decades, is among honored guests. Others include Mike Dimond, ‘85, and Mike Brown, current President of Beta Mu chapter of Phi Mu Alpha at CMU. Rauscher and Robert McNeill, ‘77, will also speak.

John Cheary, ‘70, and David Wendleton, ‘71, will deliver tributes to Dr. Montemurro before event organizer Murphy Tetley, ‘71, unveils the new plaque. Past and present members of Phi Mu Alpha will gather for a vocal performance.

Dr. Montemurro was an accomplished trumpet, flugelhorn, and piccolo trumpet soloist, and held a career in music that spanned 42 years. He died in 2012.

Dr. Montemurro earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Swinney Conservatory of Music at Central Methodist College in Fayette. While pushing his Masters of Arts Degree, he was employed as the Graduate Assistant at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He began a five-year run as band director at Central in 1967.

During his distinguished career, Dr. Montemurro served as Instrumental Coordinator, Director of Bands at Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa, Oklahoma, and as Director of Marching Band, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Ensembles at Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He directed instrumental groups at public schools in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. Dr. Montemurro was director of the Marching band, Jazz band, and concert band in Perry, Illinois, for one year, followed by two years in Scotland County Schools, in Memphis, Missouri. He was a band director at Benton High School in St. Joseph for 10 years and directed bands at Gallup High School and J.F.K. Middle School for three years in Gallup, New Mexico.

In 1971, Dr. Montemurro was named to Outstanding Educators of America. Three years later he received a Citation of Excellence from the National Bandmasters of America. He was named the National Association of Jazz Educators Outstanding Jazz Educator in the Oklahoma Unit, in 1987.

Additional performing experience was gained as a bandsman with the 5th and 371st Army bands and as a professional trumpeter with the CBS Studio in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Montemurro was a lecturer and demonstrator of Ancient Brass Instruments such as the Fanfare Trumpet, the Clarion, and other valveless instruments. He presented a paper on this topic at the 1979 conference of the American Bandmasters Association in Oklahoma City.

The Paul A. Montemurro Award is still conferred each year to a music student at Central Methodist. In April of 2012, the third floor of the renovated Classic Hall was named after him.