Vanessa McCrea
I started a love for music at a very early age. Singing at church and playing piano starting at age 5 let me know that “on stage” was a place I felt comfortable. In fourth grade I grew more advanced by adding the flute to my repertoire. Later, under the direction of Bob Boedges, I picked up piccolo so I could be heard loud and clear in the Normandy High School Marching Band...
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Gary Schoenberger
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, (the 60's I think it was called), I got serious about music (or was it meeting girls?). Anyway, I played drums & sang in a series of garage bands with guys from my neighborhood & high school (goooo Longhorns!). In reality, the southwest part of St. Louis city turned out a lot of great musicians. Many of whom are still giggin' today. Even during the height of the British invasion my musical roots were, and remain, in R & B and the Motown sound. Until finding a home with Yessir! I had been playing with a group originally called "Dixie". This was at the height of the Southern Rock craze. The band had a lot of local success & did a lot of concert work culminating in opening the first VP Fair under the Arch...
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John Israel
It all started back in the 4^th grade when was I interested in playing the drums but ended up with a trombone in my hand. Eventually, the instrument grew on me and I continued with the trombone throughout high school and college. During my senior year of high school, I made the Missouri All-State Jazz Band.
At Lindenwood University, I performed with many groups at school and also started to play out in the St. Louis area...
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Dan VanDuyne
I guess for me it all started with the Ed Sullivan Show. I started taking guitar lessons at age 8, but at 16 I realized I liked drums better.
While I was still at Bishop DuBourg High School I did the Jacks or Better circuit with Sundays Reign and wound up as the house band in Florissant. After that, a little band called Allspice played school dances, on the Admiral and at Six Flags.
In 1979 I joined a band called Nickels playing extensively throughout the midwest and recorded an album in 1983...
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Denny LaRue
I chose the saxophone way back in 5th Grade for one reason only . . .my brother played trumpet. Not even knowing what a saxophone looked like, I was driven by the desire to do whatever my brother didn't. I came up through the public school system, (in a typically lackluster fashion), until my years at Cleveland High School when an inspiring teacher, Ed Levinsky, made me realize the difference between playing the saxophone and being a saxophone player. While at Cleveland, I worked my way into the Stage Band and was introduce to Jazz music...
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Drew Davis
My Dad was a sales rep for the Fred Gretsch Co. in the 50's and 60's. I had a lot of exposer to instruments and music through him. Then, in 5th grade a band teacher came by my class and asked "Who would like to play in the band"? My life has not been the same since.
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Gary Weaver
Raised with the riffs of Hampton, Tatum, & Lewis, this south-side boy spent the earlier portion of his youth on a relentless odyssey in search of instrumental truth. My mind started unhinging when a young Andre Watts took the stage at Kiel Opera House with the SLSO in the early "60s and finally flipped hearing Pig Pen at the Fox in the "70s.
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Marty Sauer
It all began on a Sunday evening in 1972 when Dan Morice, a friend and neighbor, brought this wide-eyed DuBourg Freshman to what would be my first of many trips to St. Mary Magdalen's dances. I walked into the gym and was immediately drawn to the stage, where Jay Barry and the boys were playing tunes by the Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, King Crimson and other bands that you would hear on KSHE back then.
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