[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland in Bismarck

[Dan Augustine]

Charlie, John, and the rest--
    No problem.  I told you dixieland was everywhere. Go do a Google-search on 'Bismarck+Dixieland' (leave out the quotation-marks, and use a 'c' in the city-name).  You'll get a bunch of hits, including the following, from http://www.smchs.org/director.html:

"William J. Schmidt is the Director of Instrumental Music at St. Mary's Central High School Bismarck, North Dakota.  A graduate of Dickinson State University in Dickinson, North Dakota, he has taught at St. Mary's for 25 years.  Mr. Schmidt directs the Wind Orchestra, Symphonic Band, "Marching Saints" and the award winning SMCHS Jazz Ensemble.

Mr. Schmidt has served as the Principal Trombonist with the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra.  He presently conducts and performs with the Bill Schmidt Big Band and is the trombonist with Doc Lindelow's Dixieland Chamber Orchestra.

Schmidt is currently President of the North Dakota International Association of Jazz Educators and is the past president of the North Dakota National Band Association.  He is presently the Auditions Manager of the North Dakota All-State Band, Choir, Orchestra & Jazz Ensemble.  He is a member of the Music Educators National Conference, National Catholic Band Directors Association, International Association of Jazz Educators and the National Band Association."

    The place sounds like a hotbed of jazz to me . . .

    Dan
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>From: "John Farrell" <stridepiano@tesco.net>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Taking the week off...
>Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 07:01:41 +0100
>
>In one of his highly entertaining posts Charlie Hooks said :
>" We've considered moving out to Bismark, No Dak.  State capital.  State
>library is there.  Beautiful clean small city.  Computers don't care where
>you live.  Bank says my house in Chicago (suburb) is worth $800,000.  I can
>buy a much better house in Bismark for just under two grand.  (snip) But the
>music is the Great Problem.  All country-western.  No OKOM.  No
>classical players, let alone a symphony.  Forget the Opera.  Umm..."
><snip>
>Apart from one awful outfit there were no OKOM bands locally. I tried to
>live without it but the withdrawal symptoms became too painful to bear. The
>only alternative was for me to start my own band - it took quite a while to
>find 16 competent local musicians interested in playing MKOM but with
>perseverance and luck I got there in the end. You should hear us now !!
>Charlie - why don't you move to Bismark and do the same thing?
>John Farrell

-- 
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** Dan Augustine - ds.augustine@mail.utexas.edu             **
** Office of Admissions, University of Texas; Austin, Texas **
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