ORCHESTRA MEMBERS NEED HOMES IN CAPE

Is your child learning to play an instrument? Do you have an extra room in your house?

If so, you could be the host to a member of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra during its upcoming four-day visit.

Local families are needed to board about 45 musicians during their stay in Cape Girardeau.

To board a musician, contact Dr. Danna Cotner at 335-0791.

The orchestra will make its second consecutive concert appearance in Cape Girardeau later this month.

The orchestra will perform June 24 at 8 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band Shell. Four mini-concerts will be held June 22 and 23 throughout the city. A Sunday morning program will also be presented at the Old St. Vincent's Church.

Whenever possible, the orchestra members are guests of residents where they are performing. Typically, families who have children studying music are selected to house the musicians, Cotner said.

"We offer a rare opportunity to a child whose sole experience with a musician may have only been at a distance in a concert hall or in a student-teacher relationship," the group's founder and director Robert Boudreau said.

The orchestra, based in Pittsburgh, features woodwind, brass and percussion instrumentalists. They perform on waterways aboard the vessel Point Counterpoint II.

The orchestra's concert was a precursor to the annual Riverfest celebration, Dan Cotner said.

"In the early years of Riverfest, we had performers at the wharf," he said. Later the event was moved to land.

Because of flooding along the Mississippi River, the orchestra will perform at the Cape Municipal Band Shelter. In 1988, the concert was also held at the shelter because of high water.

Cotner remembers watching the boat from a levee as it was being towed upstream. He first saw the group perform in Paducah, Ky.

The musicians, mostly young professionals and students, are directed by Boudreau who will conduct his last concert season this year after 30 years with the orchestra.

"He said he'd retire and the boat will be docked at St. Paul," Cotner said.

But before retiring, Boudreau and the orchestra will have 10 performances in Cape Girardeau. Usually the group has only performed five concerts in the past, Cotner said.

The group will hold four mini-concerts around town on both Thursday evening and Friday afternoon. The major performance will take place Saturday. To sponsor a concert, contact Dan Cotner at 335-5833.

The performance costs about $15,000, about two-thirds of the cost has already been collected.