“Wilma Zylstra doesn’t know it, but she’s battling Darth Vader every day.”
“While the “Star Wars” theme and “Hang on Sloopy” dominate the playlists of high school and college bands, the 79-year-old librarian spends her days dusting off and preserving little-known, toe-tapping gems from the brass band era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
“At the request of patrons worldwide, Zylstra mines the 75,000 tunes of the Chatfield Brass Band Music Lending Library, a collection that began in the attic of a local music lover more than three decades ago. People looking for rare ragtime classics or lesser-known Karl King marches turn to Zylstra and the library to fill the void left by the near extinction of brass band music. In the process, the southeastern Minnesota library has become an internationally recognized repository for music teachers and community bands seeking tunes once thought lost.” (from The Las Vegas Sun)
Recent Comments