San Jose Metropolitan Band

Member Feature - Ed Lacina (Horn)

Born and raised near Cleveland Ohio, I always found myself surrounded by music. My first memory of wanting to play a band instrument was when an elementary school field trip took us to hear the U S Marine Band. That night, I went with my parents to the official concert, but this time the Band wore their dress-red uniforms. I still remember the cornet soloist standing in front of the band playing "The Carnival of Venice." The following week, our school invited to us to select a musical instrument to try. The trumpet was my first and only choice.

Over the next few years, I was always playing first chair and then in Jr. High, I was placed in the advanced band. In a short time I was playing first chair. Now for those of you who don't know me very well may find this hard to believe, but I would usually be clowning around, yes it's true. With less than a week before our Christmas Concert, Mr. Petrello had enough of my wise cracks and removed me from the first chair position, in fact, he put me at the opposite end, last chair! Knowing that my Dad would kill me for getting out of line, again, I needed to find an out. Then it happened, Mr. Petrello needed somebody to play horn in several pieces. I asked if I volunteered, could I play first horn? And the rest is history. Dad never did understand why I had a "rent to own" trumpet gathering dust in the closet, and I never really told him.

The horn soon became my instrument of choice taking me to various local and state honor bands, several summer programs at Oberlin College and having the good fortune to study with various horn players of The Cleveland Symphony .

After graduating from Parma High School I attended Kent State University on a partial music scholarship. After one year as a Music Major, and being a combination of Tom Batiuk and Drew Carey, I realized I was not disciplined enough to pursue a major in music. Oh yeah, there was also that horn prof. that told me I couldn't cut it... so I changed my major and hung out at the Ratskeller for three more years there by qualifying to take on a career in sales for Armstrong Floors.

The remaining time spent in Cleveland, I played with the Cleveland Philharmonic before moving to San Francisco. The horn gathered dust for several years until I got married and moved to Santa Rosa where I played with the Santa Rosa Symphony and also joined a local pit orchestra. In 1976 I was transferred to the San Jose territory where after settling in, became somewhat a regular with West Valley Light Opera. The demands of a young family and a career lead to my horn gathering dust once again. Then in 1984 my wife and I decided to purchase a floor covering business in Willow Glen. Shortly after that, a brass quintet was formed at my church and I dusted off my horn and joined the quintet. Over time, I returned to playing in many of the local orchestras and eventually joining the San Jose Metropolitan Band in 1992.

My wife of 32 years and I still enjoy an occasional car ralley in my 1971 TR - 6, but more than that, we try to spend time with our 5 year old grandson and our 1 year old granddaughter. We have been fortunate over the past few years to travel to Italy, Spain and my Grandparents homes in the Czech Republic.

I am a member of the San Jose Metropolitan Band, and have served as President since 2002. I have enjoyed working with many of the members over the years and have been especially grateful for the guidance and talent of Greg Bergantz. I look forward to Monday night's rehearsals, not only for the pleasure of playing my horn, but also to see so many of my friends. Over the past few years, the Board has attempted to set goals for our bands performance and musicianship. I am delighted that we are reaching our goals and I look forward to the day when we become the premier adult band in the Bay Area.