By Chris Faulkner
As a long-time band instructor for the Burlington school system and conductor for the Burlington Municipal Band, Jim Priebe has left an indelible mark in the musical world in southeast Iowa.
Whether through the school system, private lessons, or a brief tenure as an adjunct professor for a few years at Iowa Wesleyan University, Priebe taught the following band instructors: Burlington High School’s Derek Murphy, West Burlington Elementary’s Jennifer Hexom, Holy Trinity’s Emily Otte, Mount Pleasant junior high’s Adam Creager and Central Lee’s Tracy and Heather Madsen.
That’s not counting the number of past students who have participated in the Municipal Band’s summer concert series. For a long time, he was the only conductor, but that duty is now shared over the 10-concert season.
“I have to say that I have a real sense of satisfaction for having taught so many students over the years,” Priebe said. “Many are still my friends.”
Priebe started as an instructor at Oak Street and Horace Mann junior high schools.
In the 1970s, long-time Burlington High School instructor and Municipal Band conductor Maury Wright retired, and Priebe took over in both positions.
But not long after that, “I realized my true calling was at the middle school level. I went back and finished my teaching career at James Madison Middle School.”
Even then, he wasn’t done. He taught part-time at Notre Dame’s elementary and middle school bands for three more years.
Priebe was president of the Burlington Municipal Band Foundation for 10 years, and Jen Arnold, also one of his former students, has been the current president for the past three years.
However, Priebe still serves on the Southeast Iowa Symphony band board, and he and his wife, Mary, have been playing for the symphony for 50 years.
Priebe still plays in different bands around the area, having started with a nightclub band in Quincy, Ill., while still in high school.
The Early Years
“Like almost all kids, the band director came around and said, ‘You can sign up and play an instrument,’” Priebe said of when he was in fourth grade. He chose the trombone.
“I was good at it and kept going.”
The first instrument his parents bought him “was terrible,” Priebe said, and in high school, he purchased a professional instrument.
Priebe wanted to play in Quincy’s park band, so he joined the musician’s union.
A local band member, seeing Priebe’s name on the union list, called him up to see if he would play in his band and he would get paid.
“I found out much later that the trombone player that had been playing in his band was in jail for drunk and disorderly,” Priebe said.
The band played two nights a week at a nightclub. “It was a wonderful experience,” he said. “To me, it was a big-time deal.”
It also marked the beginning of a lifetime of playing in bands, such as back in the mid-1960s, when he and Mary drove from their home in Blandinsville, Ill., to play in a jazz band in Iowa City.
“He kept seeing the bridge and the nice city laid out and said, ‘Wouldn’t that be a nice place to live in,’” Mary said.
They moved here in 1965 and have played in the city band ever since.
Styles of Music
When Priebe graduated in 1960, rock and roll was in its infancy, and Bill Haley and the Comets were one of the groups Priebe liked.
But, he said, “Because I was involved in playing the trombone, I was more focused on Big Band music.”
Jazz and classical music are two different styles, and, Priebe said, back then, people tended to lean toward one or the other.
“I’ve been one of those people who straddle the divide,” he said.
“I love classical music, having played in an orchestra for so many years. It’s wonderful music. But I also love jazz, having done that for so many years,” Priebe said.
“I probably would love rock and roll if I were younger and had been exposed to it.”
The closest most young people come to hearing classical music is through movie-themed composers such as John Williams and Hans Zimmer.
“The symphony does a Masterworks series” of the traditional composers, Priebe said.
“The movie themes are in the pops concerts in the Symphonic Blast,” which will be performed on July 6 at the bandshell.
“A lot of people think of the Municipal band as maybe patriotic music on the Fourth of July,” Priebe said. “It really plays some ‘serious’ music.”
But, he said, “We try to have a balance. A typical concert might include pieces that kids would recognize, such as Disney music and SpongeBob SquarePants.
“Also, there are serious band pieces that composers write for the art of writing music. We’ll typically try to play something on that line,” Priebe said.
“The hope is, for symphony musicians and classical musicians, that we pull in listeners for that music, and they may come to a classical concert, a masterworks concert, and find out, ‘Wow! That music is great too,’ ” Priebe said.