The Lions of Massachusetts gathered together the weekend of April 29th – May 1st at their 88th Annual State Convention in Mansfield/Foxboro. One of the highlights of the Convention was the music provided by the Lions All State Band, which was made up of 52 band students from cities and towns throughout Massachusetts. The students are sponsored by individual Lions clubs and the scholarship donations of multiple clubs in the state.
Six students were there representing the City of Lynn. This in itself was an outstanding accomplishment. All students are recommended by Dr. Joseph Picano, Director of the Fine Arts Department for the Lynn Public School System. Lynn band students are so highly qualified to play in this band that three students were sponsored by each of the three Lynn clubs: Shoe City Lions, Lynn Lions and Wyoma Lions, and three others received scholarships from the donations of other clubs. More than 3,000 young musicians have participated in this very challenging and gratifying experience since 1980, and the three Lynn Lions clubs have sponsored students from the Lynn Public Band almost every one of those years. After three days of intensive practice and rehearsals with Dr. Timothy Anderson, a guest conductor from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who is the director of the 370 member award-winning Minuteman Marching Band, the students came together on Friday evening, April 29th and played for the Lions both in a jazz band of selected students and in a full concert band production. The musical selections were rich and challenging, and the students got to repeat their exceptional performance again on Saturday afternoon in a concert for their parents and other supporters.
The Lynn band students performing in the concert were Brian Patten, Adam Silvia, Nepheli Beos, Justus DeJesus, Brandon Von and Travis Davis. One of the highlights of the Lynn students’ performances was that Dr. Anderson had all the students who had participated in the band over the last 2, 3, and 4 years stand to be recognized, and the Lynn students stood to the very end with one student, English High School senior Nepheli Beos, standing alone at the end because she was the only student who had been in the band for her entire high school career. What an outstanding achievement! Lynn is definitely the City of Firsts in the eyes of the Lions of Massachusetts!