“LOVE THE BAND”

2017 was expected to be a breakout year for Northwest Ohio’s Vitak-Elsnic Tribute Band. The band was formed in 2016 as a studio band to perform classics published by the Vitak-Elsnic Company. Its unique sound features all brass instruments – trumpets, trombone, baritone horn, and tuba. When officials at Deshler, Ohio’s Bavarian Haus heard the band’s first album, Made in Ohio, they knew they had to have them perform live on their stage. The venerable dance club booked them for their first live performance in May 2017. The turnout for that engagement was one of the highest experienced by the dance venue. Everyone was looking forward to the band’s next performance on September 24.

But then the unexpected happened. First trumpet player and band co-founder Kent Harris died suddenly in August. It would be perfectly understandable if the band had canceled its upcoming performance. But the remaining band members knew that Kent would not want that. “Just a day before he died, in his last message to me, Kent simply stated: Love the Band. He would want us to go on,” said brother and fellow band member Steve Harris.

So the band played as scheduled on September 24. Attendance was even higher than May’s inaugural performance. People came for the music to be sure, but also to pay tribute to a man who had done so much for the community around him.

“It was a bittersweet time for all of us,” Steve Harris said. “We played a lot of the songs that Kent loved.” The band’s popular baritone horn duets, which had been performed at earlier engagements by brothers Steve and Kent Harris, continued with brother Todd Harris stepping in for Kent. The highlight of the program was the last song, Going Home Today, a waltz that Kent had written earlier in the year.

To honor Kent Harris, the Vitak-Elsnic Company donated 100% of all proceeds from CDs sold at the event to BGSU’s Polka Preservation Fund. An anonymous donor matched that amount dollar for dollar. With an additional contribution by northwest Ohio musical artist Ted Lange, the tribute performance generated $1,000 for the fund.

For more information about the Polka Preservation Fund, go to https://www.bgsu.edu/library/music/vitak-elsnic/. To hear the songs performed by the Vitak-Elsnic Tribute Band, visit the Made In Ohio page on Vitak-Elsnic.com
https://vitak-elsnic.com/made-in-ohio/