St. Louis band surviving pandemic with porch concerts, tips – KMOX

For 45 years, the St. Louis-based band Fanfare has made it's living performing before live audiences. And then the pandemic hit.

"At the very beginning, I book the band, I honestly did panic," says founding member Vincent Golomski. "Because we're not quite ready financially to retire. What are we going to do?"

He jokes that he's made his living playing music and has never had a "real" job.

Fellow band member Kitty Moller, who also happens to be Golomski's wife of 42 years, had an idea early on in the pandemic.

"Hey, let's do a porch concert," she said.

Golomski says they'd been practicing at least every other day in their family room, going through material just to keep things going. Performing for neighbors on their St. Louis Hills block sounded like a good idea. At first it was just the couple, then the rest of the band (socially distanced, with neighbors safely spaced).

"People were pretty generous with the tip jar," jokes Golomski.

The park concerts, festivals and other shows had come to a screeching halt, along with the school concerts. Golomski's two sons helped them put together a video of the kids' program they had been doing--a musical history tour from the big band era up to the current era.

Fanfare kept busy in 2020 with some virtual concerts, including a Christmas concert, and producing their 10th album. But Golomski and Moller are looking forward to performing before a crowd.

"We feed off the audience," says Kitty. "It makes a big difference."

But until live performances are possible once again, Golomski and Moller will keep the music alive together. When asked what it's like to work so closely with one's spouse, Golomski says it's definitely not something every couple could do, but, "We still like each other."

Moller says when they decided to get married after a few years performing together, she figured if it didn't work out, she could always quit the band. Fortunately it never came to that.

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St. Louis band surviving pandemic with porch concerts, tips - KMOX