Keller Makes Music in Naperville for 50 Years

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Illinois band leader Ron Keller says when it was time for him to choose a career, “music came at me from all four sides of my family.”

The 76-year-old music man is celebrating 50 years as conductor of the Naperville Municipal Band.

Keller tells the Naperville Sun that he was hooked from the moment he laid eyes on a Sousaphone as a third-grader in 1947. Elmer Koerner introduced him to the instrument. Keller eventually took over the municipal band from Koerner.

Keller was a music teacher and school band leader until retiring in 1993. Now he focuses on the municipal band, which has existed since 1859.

Keller took the radical step in 1970 of creating a year-round performance schedule, including a winter concert with the high school bands.

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