Lost to Hurricane Harvey: 10 years of music

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- As the flood waters from Hurricane Harvey receded, Paul Worosello began to worry about the condition of The Woodlands Concert Band's music library, located in a storage facility near I-45.

"We couldn't even get to it for about three days," said Worosello, concert band conductor. "When we finally did, we discovered about 4-feet of water."

Approximately 60 percent of the library had been under water. "It's staggering," he said. "We lost about 10 years of music."

In addition, four pieces of music that are permanently out of print were damaged.

"We spent about 20 hours on each piece of music sanitizing and drying it," Worosello said. "Even though we saved the four pieces, the paper is crinkled. It's just not the same. We hope we can use it down the road."

The four pieces include two arrangements of folk songs published by Australian composer David Stanhope, "A Manx Overture" by English Composer Haydn Wood, and "The Last Days of Pompeii" by American composer John Philip Sousa.

"We had to do our best to recover those pieces, because that music isn't published anymore," Worosello said. "Everything else is replaceable."

Replaceable, but to the tune of approximately $23,000.

Worosello said they lost 281 of 447 titles. The concert band has established a GoFundMe account to help cover replacement costs. Worosello said they did have insurance, but it didn't include flooding because the library was considered to be well out of the flood plain and had never even come close to flooding before.

"The purpose of having the library in the first place is that 10 years from now, we can come back and recycle some pieces that we played 10 years earlier that people hadn't yet heard," Worosello said. "It's critical because we probably play between 60—70 pieces a year. And we just don't have the budget to constantly purchase that much music a year."

The Woodlands Concert Band is a nonprofit organization comprised of volunteer musicians who perform community concerts and other musical activities free to the public. Founded in 2000, it now has a membership approaching 90 musicians.

They recently announced the Fall 2017 Concert Series, which kicks off Thursday Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at The Woodlands Community Presbyterian Church, 4881 W. Panther Creek Drive.

For the full 2017-2018 concert schedule, visit www.woodlandsband.org.

Worosello is now in his eighth year as director.

"The quality and level of musicianship has just blossomed to an amazing level," Worosello said. "I feel so honored to stand in front of this group of musicians."

Paul Worosello, Conductor, The Woodlands Concert Band