Courtesy photo Some of the members of the 18-piece band "Dan Gabel and the Abletones," which will appear at a Nashua Community Concert Association concert on Feb. 25, gathered during a recent concert at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth. (Courtesy photo)

NASHUA – As spring was giving way to summer in the second full year of the Great Depression, Nashuans were still in the midst of the grim task of trying to decide what they could, or should, do without until the insidious economic crisis showed signs of turning around.

Nevertheless, local folks who were able to do so began signing up in droves to support an ambitious endeavor that promised to bring world-class concert music to Nashua.

The project would be called the Nashua Community Concert Association, and if successful, would add another city to the growing network of communities able to boast of including a Community Concert Association among its cultural attractions.

In no time, that “if successful” became “resoundingly successful,” and the new Nashua Community Concert Association, taking nourishment from a rapidly-filling treasury, grew from infancy to toddlerhood to childhood to adolescence and finally, to adulthood.

But these days, “rapidly-filling” no longer describes the association’s treasury, and the overflow crowd of volunteers and benefactors has dwindled to the point that it’s quite possible the association will become but a memory after the 2022-23 season.

Dean Shalhoup

While this season is going along just fine – the first concert was held in November, and three more are on tap: Feb. 25 (Dan Gabel and the Abletones), March 11 (Holy Rocka Rollaz), and April 22 (pianist Thomas Pandolfi) – and enough funds have been set aside for a 2022-23 season, it depends on how successful the group’s current leadership is in recruiting new volunteers, whether they be individuals, groups or corporate partners, association president Cal Knickerbocker said.

As it stands now, eight key volunteer positions must be filled in order for the association to continue past next season, Knickerbocker said.

•••

Needed are:

• President, to coordinate the many activities involved

• Treasurer, to deal with many checks, invoices, tax returns, licenses and so forth

• Campaign Director, to coordinate obtaining subscriptions from 400 or more members

• Publicity Director, someone who knows how to use social media

• Membership Secretary, to maintain computer records of membership

• Concert Manager, to deal with all issues involving staging

• A volunteer familiar with Microsoft Access, to design programs, fliers, ads and so forth

• One or more volunteers to obtain scholarships to augment revenue.

More details about the association, including information on becoming a volunteer or a membership subscriber, can be found at www.nashuacommunityconcerts.org, or by contacting Knickerbocker at 579-0603 or nashuacca@gmail.com.

“Community Concert Drive Opens with Enthusiasm,” reads a good-sized headline on the front page of the June 2, 1931 Nashua Telegraph.

The occasion was the first membership-drive meeting of the of the newborn Nashua Community Concert Association, an event that seems to have been the talk of the town over the next year or so.

As well it should have been. Imagine undertaking such a sweeping endeavor – and doing so successfully – in the throes of the Great Depression?

True, a membership subscription was a mere $5 for grownups and $3 for kids – but guess what? Paying $5 in 1931 would be the same as paying $91 today.

And guess what else? An adult membership subscription to the Nashua Community Concert Association today is $50 – a little more than half of what it cost to join in 1931, adjusted for inflation.

On hand at that first meeting was the renowned music critic and national director of Community Concert Associations, one Dr. Sigmund Spaeth, who, according to the Telegraph, possessed “a keen sense of humor and much musical talent.”

Dr. Spaeth wowed the gathering of more than 100 campaign workers with “a clever rendition” of “Yes, We Have no Bananas,” and stilled the house with his profound observation: “Music is the organization of sound toward beauty.”

According to a 1980 feature story penned by the late Marilyn Solomon, for years my esteemed colleague here at The Telegraph, the Nashua Community Concert Association very nearly became a memory before it even got started.

“It was a bitter cold night in January 1931 when Dr. W. H. Weston, temproary chairman, presided over the (meeting) held at the YWCA building on Temple Street.

“With so few in attendance, it seemed useless to continue, so the meeting was postponed with the hope that it was the weather and not a lack of interest in music that prompted the poor turnout,” Solomon wrote.

“Ten days later, a strong showing of music lovers, waiving signatures of scores of enthusiastic Nashuans, gathered. The support was there after all.

“The group set about laying the groundwork for what was to become a community institution and the vehicle for bringing hundreds of the world’s finest talents before Nashua audiences.”

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.